Welcome To Public Space.

As researchers, we set up PublicSpace in 2005 after the familiar experience of an important dissemination being left to the end of a research project and then being abandoned as not feasible.  It let down the rural communities and the many industry and policy professionals who had contributed so much to the project.  It meant that insights from a major publicly-funded project were not available to inform the subsequent government reports.

Our goal in setting up PublicSpace was therefore to develop, and offer, the practical and intellectual expertise needed to make research dissemination possible and effective, even within the constraints of project funding.

Our first video, disseminating a major UK research project, was submitted as one of the two ‘nominated outputs’ from the project to the ESRC.   This acknowledged its combined intellectual and communicative value.   The project was subsequently graded 'Outstanding' in its End of Award evaluation.

Since then we have continued the work, upgraded our technology to professional broadcast and design standards, and developed a great team.   The positive lesson of that 2005 research remains: there are times when the wider communication of research findings can be even more important and rewarding than more research.

Within the current debates on research 'impact', we nevertheless share the concern about whether it is constructive to make short-term demands for 'impact' on individual research teams.  Yet we also share the wider principle that publicly-funded research should contribute to current understanding, practice, policy and debate.  It may be that constructive progress will be achieved through successful examples of reconciling these concerns and goals in practice.

As a registered not-for-profit organisation, PublicSpace can be a named partner within EC FP7 funded research, or a named supplier within projects funded by UK research councils, or alternatively simply contracted.