The Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) held its annual Masterclass on November 16-17, 2021, focusing on “Public Engagement in Research and Innovation.” This virtual forum gathered 172 participants from 30 countries, including representatives from Science Granting Councils (SGCs), researchers, government officials, and partner agencies. The event explored strategies for increasing public involvement in science and technology, sharing experiences, and addressing barriers to broadening the public reach of research.

Dr. Konosoang Sobane, from the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa, delivered the keynote presentation, which addressed the current status and challenges of public engagement in African research. Following her presentation, a panel of African SGC representatives—including TETFund (Nigeria), NCST (Rwanda), and NRF (South Africa)—alongside global partners like the UK Collaborative on Research and Innovation (UKCRI) and the Netherlands Research Council (NWO), provided insights on the complexities of involving the public in research initiatives. Representatives from Botswana, Uganda, Senegal, Kenya, and Namibia reinforced these discussions with additional African perspectives.

The specific objectives of the masterclass were to:

• Review and document inclusivity (or lack thereof) in the public engagement initiatives of participating SGCs, in consideration with the pillars of inclusivity set out in the TORS.
• Identify the skills and capacities of SGCs to institutionalise and implement gender-inclusive public engagement initiatives in their policies and frameworks.
• Explore best practices in inclusive digital communication to enhance and transform the SGCs’ public engagement approaches.
• Develop and recommend an inclusive, multimodal, contextualised and innovative public engagement framework with a clearly defined impact framework and theory of change.

Project outputs

Masterclass Report: Towards Inclusive Multimodal Public Engagement with Research and Innovation for Development in Science Granting Councils in Sub-Saharan Africa

Policy Brief: Fostering inclusive multimodal public engagement with research and innovation in science granting councils in Sub-saharan Africa: Policy perspectives

Workshop Report: Report of the Science Granting Councils Initiative 2021 Annual Forum & GRC Africa Regional meeting

Masterclass Presentation: Towards Inclusive Multimodal Public Engagement with Research and Innovation for Development in Science Granting Councils in Sub-Saharan Africa