Step 1: Hopes & Dreams

First things first. Before you can even secure the funding for this sort of collaboration you need to know the nature of the partnership. Who exactly is going to be involved & in what way?

Our first meetings with both Quantum & VR have focused on descriptions of the hopes & dreams on both sides of the fence. We submitted budget & timelines twice over to get EPSRC funding for a Knowledge Transfer Secondment - there has already been a lot of conversations. However, what you talk about whilst preparing a funding bid & what you talk about when you see the green light can be quite different things... 

Straight up, Kilter doesn't pretend to be the be-all-&-end-all of Public Engagement. Most of the researchers we work with have more recent experience than we do. Whilst we don't actively avoid Science Fairs, the invitations don't often land in our inbox. Many of our collaborators have Public Engagement credentials coming out their ears; they have training; it is a central condition of their employment.

So, if our partners, already know what they're doing, we don't want to waste time re-inventing the wheel. At the same time, Kilter has a unique way of making work. We have a strong track record for producing surprises; new ways of getting under the skin of a subject & awakening new audiences, new interests, longer-lasting impacts. We always talk about producing an unforgettable school assembly & whilst that wouldn't be the worst possible outcome, it would hardly be breaking the mould! If we're going to all this effort, we really want to create something that can take flight. We don't want it to seem to be about education at all but something much more visceral & urgent!

That's the fires lit but how do we keep them stoked?

We're all busy so is there somebody on each team who is devoted to this collaboration? Can anybody fit this into their research & make it a part of their everyday workload? How are we even going to match our diaries? Who's travelling? Who's paying? What goal-posts can we set ourselves along the way to make sure we don't let our mission drift? Here's an idea: could writing a blog help keep focus?
 
Most importantly, can we devise a system that won't stagnate or sink when suddenly somebody has to leave the room for 6 months whilst they write up their thesis?

What are we aiming for here?