IFR in the City event:

You Decide Science Funding

A public audience recently voted for the science they would fund at The Garage in Norwich. Hosted by BBC Radio 4 presenter Anna Hill, four Institute of Food Research scientists ran the gauntlet after a presentation by Dr Mary Anderson (Head of Contracts) explaining how science funding works in the UK.

Prof. Jay Hinton, Caroline Furniss, Jeff Tremblay and Dr Liz Lund each had 10 minutes to convince the audience to vote for their research proposal.

Jay spoke about a previously unsuccessful grant proposal on Salmonella, supported by Edwina Currie.

Caroline, supported by Dr Ian Gibson MP, talked about a funded research project investigating the anti cancer properties of broccoli.

Jeff (a third year PhD student) also presented a previously funded proposal looking at the effect of probiotics on the incidence of asthma supported by Norfolk & Norwich Cniversity Hospital Consultant, Andrew Wilson.

Finally, Dr Liz Lund invented a proposal on the effects of eating undercooked or overcooked meat, endorsed by Norfolk celebrity chef, Galton Blackiston.

The voiceover endorsements were pre-recorded, and then played as part of the presentations.

Jeff Tremblay won, securing 51% of the votes cast.

Why did we run ‘You Decide’?

The aim was twofold: to trial and evaluate a method of engaging with the public about science, and to study the factors used by the public in making funding allocation decisions. Results suggest that, while participants enjoyed the process and appeared to learn from it, they were not particularly ‘representative’ - a common problem with engagement approaches of this type. Participants’ funding decisions were largely based on factors such as ‘benefit to society’ and ‘personal relevance’, though aspects such as the ‘likeability’ and ‘trustworthiness’ of the speaker may have played a role.

We hope as a result of this work to ultimately provide a template for use in the assessment of public engagement events more generally, but specifically with regards to the issue of research funding. Our approach has been taken up in Australia, where Masters student, Cobi Smith repeated the event (and evaluation) in Adelaide and Canberra during Australian Science Week.

Publication: Gene Rowe et al. (2008) Public engagement in research funding: A study of public capabilities and engagement methodology. Public Understanding of Science doi:10.1177/0963662508096780