The myriad impacts of public engagement on tertiary education; including smoothing the transition from secondary to tertiary education

Public engagement, often referred to as Outreach, should not be an optional extra for research active staff and should not be the preserve of communication experts only. In this talk we chart the myriad impacts of public engagement following the establishment of the Bristol ChemLabS Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Crucial to the success of the Bristol ChemLabS public engagement programme was the appointment of a School Teacher Fellow (and we will discuss their impact on smoothing the transition from secondary to tertiary education) and a well-trained cadre of postgraduate (and undergraduate) students. However, the key ingredient was a proactive senior management team. Examples of impact include; direct impact on research, enhancement and improvement of teaching, the Dynamic Laboratory Manual, postgraduate employability, wider stakeholder involvement in the School of Chemistry, impact on grant success and widening the type of grants applied for and received, engaging administrative staff, national and international awards and many more.