Co-production of community-basedpublic engagement for data and AI research
(Project Reference: EP/W033488/1) is one of five flagship projects in the UK funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to build capacity and capability for public engagement with research in information and communication technologies. The project started on the 1st of September 2022 and will end in May 2025.Professor Keeley Crockett is the Principal Investigator and takes the role of Public Engagement Champion.
Our project, PEAs in Pods, will empower the Greater Manchester (GM) data science and artificial intelligence (AI) research communities to engage meaningfully with traditionally marginalised communities and embed coproduction methods into individual and institutional research processes and governance.
The theme of our public engagement activities is around AI and data-driven technologies. The need to engage citizens in the research and development of this field is increasingly widely recognised, with benefits including increased public trust and more socially relevant applications. If we want to build trust we must first reach out to citizens, inspire them to get involved and demonstrate that their voices have influence.
What we will do
We will train a cohort of data scientists and AI researchers, known as Public Engagement Ambassadors (PEAs), from three GM universities, then guide and mentor them to work confidently with co-researchers from three traditionally marginalised and digitally excluded groups. Teams will co-produce a set of relevant public engagement events and activities that respond to these community groups' distinct needs, interests, and understandings. Following evaluation, they will then co-develop a set of legacy resources for ongoing community engagement beyond the project under the theme “Data Ethics and AI in a Box.”
In parallel, the Public Engagement Champion, Keeley Crockett, will engage with the universities (Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester University and university if Salford) to build awareness of and appetite for longer-term researcher-community interaction.
The project will therefore also empower these communities to have a voice and help influence the direction of data science and AI research and its impact on society.
This project has received funding from UKRI engineeringand Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC) Grant Ref: EP/W033488/1
