Public Engagement
Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) is an essential part of designing and conducting research, and translating findings into public benefit, so it’s a major priority for Oxford immunologists. Here are some examples of the work currently underway in this area.
Thanks for the Memories (T4TM) is a 3-year project supported by the Wellcome Trust that explores interactions between viruses, vaccines, immune memory … and music.
What’s the aim?
Our immune systems don’t just battle the current disease that they are exposed to: they form memories in response to past infection or vaccination that help to protect us against future disease. This project asks how immune memory can inform musical composition – and how the creation and performance of music can, in turn, offer a new perspective on scientific practices and their impact on our lives. T4TM brings together the worlds of immunology and music for researchers, composers, secondary schools students, and the public; allowing these diverse communities to share their own perspectives and learn from each other.
Who’s involved?
The project is led by University of Oxford’s Prof. Paul Klenerman and Royal Northern College of Music’s artist-in-residence Dr Zakiya Leeming. They are combining their scientific and musical expertise to explore the subject of immune memory in two strands to this project: a T4TM Schools Project, engaging with secondary school students in Manchester and Oxford, and a T4TM Opera by Leeming, performed for the wider public.
What will happen?
T4TM Schools
The project brings multidisciplinary exploration into secondary schools in Oxford and Manchester, working with year 9 pupils to:
- Uncover the history and science of vaccines – from the early pioneering work of figures such as Lady Mary Wortley Montague and Edward Jenner, to the cutting-edge challenges of contemporary vaccine science, pupils will receive a solid foundation on which to build KS4 work on the immune system and viruses.
- Create their own musical response to immune memory – whether they have any prior musical experience or not, pupils will be guided by Leeming to compose their own piece of music inspired by the history and science of immune memory.
Students’ musical compositions will come to life at the end of the project: performed by musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Oxford.
T4TM Opera
The project will culminate in the premiere of a new chamber opera in 2025. Created by Leeming and Klenerman together with mezzo soprano Rosie Middleton, the opera will bring together song and storytelling to explore memory: both immune and cultural, through the pioneering work of Lady Mary Wortley Montague.
Why participate?
For school students
When you’re infected or vaccinated, your immune system is able to ‘remember’ how to treat the disease in the future. You might think of science and music as being completely separate parts of your school life – but this project will help you to explore the links between the two.
For teachers
T4TM offers curriculum enrichment across science, music, and history, allowing your year 9 pupils to be inspired to discover new connections across their work, supported by the University of Oxford and the Royal Northern College of Music. But more than this, the work with T4TM will build a strong foundation for your pupils’ work on the immune system in KS4 Science.
For researchers
The scientific research underpinning this project investigates immune memory and vaccination; the project expands to examine how musical composition and performance can be informed by, and in turn inform, scientific research. The project is an opportunity to introduce the wider community, including school pupils, to these multidisciplinary perspectives.
For musicians
Musicians taking part in both the T4TM Schools performance and the T4TM Opera have the chance to create their own musical compositions, and share their feelings and experiences on the topic through an innovative cross-disciplinary investigation of science and music, a meeting of the University of Oxford, the Royal Northern College of Music, and schools: a multidisciplinary collaboration bringing together diverse communities.
If you would like to get in touch with the T4TM team, please contact project facilitator rachel.hindmarsh@stcatz.ox.ac.uk.
Sean Elias visited the Green Man Festival science area along with a bioreactor and some ‘vaccine beers’ to spark discussion about vaccine manufacturing. Sean says ‘I would strongly recommend the venue to scientific groups looking for somewhere different to do public engagement. I feel it was great value for money for 4 full days of engagement and the number of people engaged. It was also an easy sell. Our team was a perfect blend of clinicians, research assistants, post docs and students all of whom signed up as soon as I advertised it. It was busy a busy few days, but there was also plenty of time to explore and enjoy the food and music and other science on offer.’
The Jenner Institute and Pandemic Sciences Institute public engagement team have frequently visited Science Oxford's Headington home for with their Live Lab Experience 'The Wonders of Blood'. Young scientists get a chance to learn about the different components of blood and what they do, how scientists separate these components, and have a go using real lab equipment to make their own separated 'blood' along with other rolling accompanying activities.
Public Engagement at the WIMM
The Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine runs a variety of public engagement activities, including:
- school visits and courses and workshops for teachers
- activities with patient groups
- visits to festivals and museums
- public talks and lectures
We asked Cillian Gartlan about his work with Oxford Sparks to make the Pandemics: The Unanswered Questions documentary. Cillian and a wider team from the Pandemic Sciences Institute spoke with members of the public about issues including the likelihood of future pandemics, the reasons why some viruses affect humans differently to bats, and how covid vaccines were developed so quickly.
Q: Why is it important for scientists to do public engagement projects like this?
A: As scientists, much of our funding comes from public bodies and I believe it’s therefore very important that we effectively communicate our findings to the wider public. When our research impacts something related to everyday life, such as public health in our context, I think we should make even more of an effort to do public engagement projects. Two-way public engagement projects like ours can be beneficial for both the scientists involved and the non-scientists we interact with, as we have something to learn from the questions that people ask us. Non-scientists can help us think about problems in different ways and can shed light on aspects of our science that have not been communicated well to the wider public. I think in our pandemic research context, it is really important to understand where the gaps are in public health messaging and therefore where we may need to increase our science communication efforts.
Q: How did you plan the project and the documentary?
A: The wider project was planned out by myself and the other DPhil students involved, along with Janet Stott, who is a Reuben College fellow in public engagement as well as the public engagement lead at Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History. We had discussions with non-scientists in the museum on different days and targeted different age groups in order to get a broader idea of the kinds of questions people still had related to pandemics, viruses and vaccines. Once we decided that we would also like to make a documentary to share our discussions of some of the most popular questions we heard, we worked with Charlotte Bird and Rob Key at Oxford Sparks to make this possible.
Q: How much did the video cost to make? How did you fund this?
A: The ‘micro-documentary’ video with Oxford Sparks, which lasts up to about 10 minutes or so, costs £1,600. This includes their planning of the script with you, as well as filming, direction, editing and publication online all done by their team. They also alternatively offer short-form videos for social media (https://www.mpls.ox.ac.uk/public-engagement/oxford-sparks-get-involved). I am a DPhil student at Reuben College, so I applied for Reuben College’s PER grant, which awarded us £1,000. As we wanted to produce the video with Oxford Sparks on top of buying some props for public engagement, we successfully sought matched funding from Oxford’s Pandemic Sciences Institute, which our lab is part of.
Q: How did Oxford Sparks help you?
A: We were very impressed with all the thought that Oxford Sparks put into making our micro-documentary. They helped a lot with planning the direction and shots and were very professional and time-efficient on our filming days. Overall, they helped turn our rough ideas on how this would look into a professional short-form documentary.
Q: How did you find volunteers to take part in the interviews?
A: We were helped by both Janet Stott at the museum and Oxford Sparks, who each knew people through their programs or previous projects that had lived experiences related to the pandemic. We knew that these volunteers would provide interesting perspectives when discussing these ‘unanswered questions’ that our film focused on.
Q: Have you got any more public engagement projects planned for the future?
A: Most of us involved in the documentary are finishing our DPhils in the near future so are not doing as much public engagement at the moment. In the past I’ve been lucky to be part of many public engagement projects, including the ‘Science Together Oxford’ programme and through Reuben College. Before coming to Oxford, I’d also been involved in public engagement projects in Ireland, largely through Science Gallery Dublin. I certainly hope to do more public engagement in the future!
Q: Is scientific misinformation a new problem or are we just more aware of it than we used to be?
A: Scientific misinformation is certainly not a new problem. In our field, for example, vaccine misinformation can be traced back to as early as the first vaccinations! However I do think that in modern times, social media platforms have helped to amplify misinformation, so I believe it’s important that we counter this by sharing our scientific knowledge and engage in meaningful discussions with non-scientists who may have concerns or questions related to work we carry out. ‘Bot’ accounts on social media that spread misinformation appear to be quite prominent, so when engaging with individual accounts online I think it’s important to keep this in mind and focus our efforts appropriately on discussions with real people who are open to conversation.
Q: Do you have any tips for engaging with the public on difficult questions such as vaccine hesitancy?
A: I think it’s important to remember that the majority of people you will encounter (at in-person events at least, I think there is a skew online) who have questions about vaccines are coming from a good place and are genuinely curious. On social media we can become convinced that people fall into two black-and-white categories of pro- or anti-vaccine. In reality, people have more nuanced views and will enjoy having a discussion with an expert. It’s best to avoid using jargon and to avoid assumptions about someone’s prior knowledge or reasons for asking particular questions. Many people we spoke to were very happy to talk to us once they realised that we would be friendly and non-judgemental. I think as academics who are often funded by public bodies, it can be important to mention this, because sometimes people may conflate your expression of views related to vaccines as tied with financial interests you have in the success of particular vaccines. I felt that people were more receptive to discussions when we were open about the fact that we were researching vaccines independently of financial interests and were just genuinely very passionate about vaccinology and how it relates to protecting us against disease!
For more information about working with Oxford Sparks visit Oxford Sparks: Get Involved.