Authentic PPIE – the (re)search for authentic engagement

Academic poster: The Sandbox Project: Square Tomatoes and How Not to Grow Them

Hello! Just a quick update to say that unfortunately I wasn’t successful in my application for a Churchil Fellowship this year, but I’m still really pleased to be have been shortlisted – I was one of 218 applicants out of 730 applications, so I think I did pretty well getting that far! What I think I’ve learnt from this process is that I need to be better at my ‘elevator pitch’ and I need to practice how to be more articulate about an area of work which many people don’t know about. Onward and upward!

In more encouraging news, however, the academic poster I designed and presented at the ARC Wessex event on June 5th won first prize! I was quite taken aback – but also very pleased! The prize was a £100 Amazon voucher, but I’m going to see if I can convert it and we’ll take the Sandbox ladies out for afternoon tea 😀

I also got the grade back from my Bournemouth University CPD module Public Involvement in Research. This was a Masters level unit worth 20 credits and I got a merit! (68%). I’m really pleased with my grade and feel very encouraged by it!

I would strongly recommend the Public Involvement in Research course. It’s co-designed and co-delivered with public contrbutors and even for someone who’s been working in this area for several years, I still had new things to learn and found it very valuable. Definitely worth a look!