PERARES

From 2010 to 2014 the Science Shop (dr. Henk Mulder) coordinated the PERARES -project; a 3 Million Euro project on Public Engagement with Research And Research Engagement with Society, funded by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme. The PERARES project aimed to strengthen public engagement in research (PER) by involving researchers and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the formulation of research agendas and the research process.

The 28 partners in this project came from 17 countries :

University of Groningen, Wageningen University (WU) and Research Centres (SDLO) (Netherlands), Free University Brussels (Belgium), Science Shop Bonn; WTT Science Shop Zittau (Germany), University of Glamorgan (Until 10/2010), Queens University Belfast; University of Cambridge; University of Newcastle (UK), University College Cork; Dublin Institute of Technology; Dublin City University (Ireland), University Rovira I Virgili Tarragona (Spain), Foundation Sciences Citoyennes; Foundation for the Development of an Active Citizen Research ADReCA; University of Lyon (France), Swedish Research Council (Until 10/2011) (Sweden), Technical University Crete (Greece), Politehnica University Bucharest (Romania), ESSRG Science Shop (Hungary), University of Stavanger (Norway), University of Sassari (Italy), European University (Cyprus), Institute for Baltic Studies (Estonia), Aalborg University (replacing Technical University of Denmark from Sep 2012) (Denmark), Heschel Centre (Israel).

These partners were Science Shops (either part of a University or research institute, or a separate non-profit organisation/CSO), CSOs promoting the democratisation of research, Universities interested in starting a Science Shop (either public or private Universities), and, in the initial phase, a research council. Next to these official partners, many CSOs were co-operating in studies based on their specific interest (thus, performed on their behalf, at their request, and in consultation and co-operation with them).

Over its 4½ years, the project has advanced the ways in which research agendas can be made in co-operation between researchers and civil society organizations -- these agenda’s being on the institute level, such as a university’s, or broader, in international co-operations.