The University of Lincoln's PEARL proposal seeks to enhance the institution's approach to supporting 'public engagement with research', responding to the 'enhance and embed' element of RCUK's 2017 SEE-PER call. 'Public engagement with research' goes beyond uni-directional dissemination to involve individuals and communities in two-way reflexive interactions intended to inform, inspire, involve, upskill and enrich. Public engagement is vitally important to universities as it increases the actual and perceived value of research to wider society, builds research capacity and broadens research horizons. Research context Public engagement with research (PER) is an emerging practice-centred field which over the last 15 years has advanced understanding the need for university researchers to engage with wider, stimulated increased PER activity, and advanced understanding of the impact of public engagement with research and the mechanisms which are most effective for nurturing quality, reach and impact in PER. Many UK universities have signed RCUK's Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE)'s Manifesto for Public Engagement. However, PER is still not consistently valued by researchers or research managers and support provided for PER is not consistently high. Aims/objectives The University of Lincoln is a post-1992 university with a growing reputation for research and a strong commitment to, and track record in, public engagement. However, analysis with NCCPE's Edge Tool has shown that, lacking the resources of many larger and older institutions, support for PER at the university is not consistently of the highest standard. PEARL aims to improve this in order to benefit wider publics and researchers and act as a model for other HEIs. PEARL's objectives contribute to a wider Strategy for PER and focus on identified needs to strengthen the support for, and visibility of, PER. Methods PEARL will firstly carry out a series of surveys to provide detailed baseline data about attitudes to the provision of, and support for, PER at the university, and assess the full extent of PE currently carried out at the university. These data will then enable the impact of PEARL interventions to be evaluated, and will also identify what improvements in support for PER need to be introduced. Next, four training workshops will be developed in response to researchers' identified requirements, and a database of current PER activity (including researchers, subjects, publics) created. A dedicated PER microsite within the university website will be designed to act as a landing strip and portal for information and news about research and how wider publics can engage with it, including a blog, archives of previous PER activity and resources from workshops and research. Six new PER activities will test the new PER support systems and provide exemplars for others. New systems for rewarding PER will be devised and taken through necessary university committees, and formats for an Annual Conference and Annual Report on PER will be devised and inaugural event/issue run/published. The impact of all activity will be evaluated using a range of methods and evidence. Benefits PEARL will benefit members of wider publics including adults, school pupils and community/voluntary sector groups, city councils, county councils, tourist bodies, local businesses, public engagement enablers, NCCPE, researchers, policy makers and universities. Benefits will include PER which is better designed, targeted and evaluated; wider publics with a more informed knowledge of the benefits of research and how to engage with it; new PER activity, improved understanding of the efficacy of different ways of supporting PER and improved understanding of the benefits of PER to wider publics. Impacts will reach beneficiaries in person, via conferences and academic publications and online.

The key aim of University of Lincoln (UoL) ‘LI-GHTS’ festival is making research accessible for everyone, expressed in its LIGHTS acroynm (Lincoln – Get Hold of Tech and Science). LIGHTS Nights will serve a huge hinterland of the Midlands and North/North Eastern England with a dispersed, predominantly rural population including some of the most deprived areas of the UK which are home to large numbers of non-UK born EU citizens. Centred in this area, which too often lags behind other parts of Europe socially, economically and educationally, LIGHTS Nights has immense capacity to help realise the untapped potential of its local and regional hinterland by bringing people of all ages and backgrounds closer to the research of UoL through showcasing some of the University’s most exciting and dynamic science, informing them of the amazing science being forged on their doorstep, and inspiring them with the importance, excitement and excellent of our research. The UoL sits in the ancient Roman and medieval city of Lincoln, close to the stunning cathedral which has dominated the surrounding landscape for nearly 1,000 years. In contrast, the UoL was founded barely 20 years ago, but has become the UK’s fastest growing university expanding from nothing in 1995 to more than 13,000 students in 2015 and been ranked among the top 40 UK universities. The UoL’s meteoric growth has not been allowed to sever the it’s connections with its community. As well as working internationally, UoL is firmly embedded within its locale and is thus transforming its host city. The ambitious and upward trajectory of the UoL represents an inspiring model for young people looking to engage with learning and research. As such the opportunity to stage a Researcher’s Night is both timely and very valuable, and has a high potential to deliver a significant dividend in terms of attitudinal shift in wider publics towards the importance and benefits of research and research as a career.

International environmental law (IEL), with multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) as its main component, has not been able to address the underlying causes that are responsible for the socio-ecological crisis of the Anthropocene and it seems unable to respond to this crisis. By providing the fellow with a sustained opportunity to interrogate IEL’s principal MEAs in the context of the Anthropocene, this project seeks to investigate a) the normative implications of the Anthropocene for law and IEL specifically; b) explain why and to what extent MEAs have contributed, and have been unable to respond to, the Anthropocene’s socio-ecological crisis; and c) to propose a global ecological custodial framework of care (GLEC-Law) to reform these MEAs. Lawyers have been unable to present a comprehensive solution to MEAs' deficiencies and failures, while Anthropocene scientists have been unable to meaningfully translate their insights into the juridical domain. Responding to this knowledge gap, this multi-disciplinary project brings together an experienced researcher and an internationally recognized research group with global expertise to problematize the failures, deficiencies and potential of MEAs in the Anthropocene and to propose reforms of these MEAs. The fellow brings expertise on environmental law, governance and constitutionalism to the host and secondment institutions, including access to global and global South networks, while contributing to establishing the host as a leading multi-disciplinary European center of excellence in law, governance and Anthropocene studies. The fellow will gain methodological and doctrinal training in IEL and Anthropocene related sciences. The project’s scientific importance, operationalised through its 3 work packages and associated scholarly impact and dissemination activities, lies in its original contribution as the first multi-disciplinary study to view MEAs through the lens of the Anthropocene and its associated constructs.