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Applications are now open for researchers from across all disciplines to deliver public engagement events

We are pleased to share that Expressions of Interest are now open for the ESRC Festival of Social Science (FoSS) 2022. The festival is an annual event that showcases leading social science research or social science-related events to engage and inspire public audiences and young people as part of a wider programme of events taking place across the UK. The aim is to reach non-academic, public audiences to increase awareness of the social sciences and highlight the value that the social sciences and/or social science research bring to our everyday lives.

Benefits of organising an event

  • This high profile, UK-wide event is an excellent opportunity to promote your research to new audiences, build your reputation and gain valuable public engagement experience
  • There will be up to £1,000 funding available per event
  • We are exploring opportunities of arranging public engagement training for event organisers if you have have particular questions about this please contact LSSI

The 2022 national ESRC Festival of Social Science (FoSS) will run from 22 October – 13 November 2022.

Target audience

  • ESRC aims for the 2022 Festival to increase its reach with public and youth audiences.
  • The overall aim of the ESRC is to engage with non-academic groups and generalist audiences.
  • We are open to events targeted at policy makers, professionals, businesses or third sector organisations.

Theme

Festival theme ‘My local area’

  • This might be anything from its social and economic history to its dialect, its political landscape, its local businesses and innovators, the future of its local high streets or its public services.
  • At the University of Leeds we are interested in organising a Yorkshire strand to this year's festival.  Please see the expression of interest form for more information.
  • If enough partners are planning events which would fall under a global insecurity and risk theme (potentially worded differently for a public audience) we may present this as a secondary theme on the website.
  • As always other Festival events can be on any economics/social science topics likely to be of interest to the target audiences for which they are designed.

Who can take part?

Researchers from all disciplines are welcome to apply and you do not need to be a social scientist to participate, as long as the research has a social science component or collaborating partner. Applications are welcome from any researcher at the collaborating institution, regardless of career stage.   Applications from outside of the University, such as by a third sector partner, are also welcome as long as they are submitted with a collaborating partner at the University of Leeds.

How to apply?

The following document contains further information relating to the aims and criteria of this year's festival:

Festival Event Leader Pack - FoSS 2022 (Aug 22 update)

If you would like to receive an Expression of Interest form, please email lssi@leeds.ac.uk who will then share the link with you to complete this form.  Deadline for submitting an EOI is 17:00 on Wednesday 10 August.