Hi everyone, I’m Sarah and I am the Public Involvement and Engagement Manager at Cardiff University School of Medicine.

What a title, I hear you cry! What does this mean?

Well, briefly, my role is all about building relationships with communities outside of the University with the aim of meaningfully engaging and involving members of the public in the research and teaching activity that we carry out in the School of Medicine so it is of benefit to all involved.

The School of Medicine has two very important functions: teaching and training the doctors of the future, and carrying out important research into big health challenges, for example, cancer, mental health and infection.

My role sees me working with researchers to engage and involve members of the public in the research we are doing, often raising aspirations of what science can do, demonstrating the impact of science on everyday life, providing opportunities to ask questions, inform research, build trust and demonstrate accountability for what we do.

On the teaching side, I work with patients and members of the public who would like to get involved in the teaching of our future doctors, normally by sharing a lived experience of a clinical condition, which is evidenced to significantly enhance student learning.

You may be surprised to learn that you don’t actually have to have a background in science to do a role such as mine. Though I’m the first to admit that it would be helpful on occasions! However, it was actually my lack of a scientific background that fed my enthusiasm and passion for public engagement and involvement when I first joined the University.

Having obtained a Law and French degree, I went onto work for the European Commission in Brussels and later for members of European Parliament before taking up a scientific administration role at Cardiff University. Early on, I saw the benefits of engaging and involving members of the public in research as it helped ME to understand very complex science and contribute on a more level playing field with researcher colleagues!

I love to see how engaging and involving people in research can really empower all involved, inform debate, bring to light the unexpected, take research in a different direction, support professional development, make you think creatively and innovatively and help to demonstrate the impact of science.

Another very important part of my role is engaging with school-aged children. In the School of Medicine, we run a very successful Science in Health engagement initiative which focuses on providing insights into the cutting edge research being carried out within Cardiff University, real-life science applications as well as highlighting the wide range of clinical and non-clinical career options available to those with a developing passion for science.

Our MEDIC Ambassadors programme also supports outreach activity with schools, supporting delivery of digital and in-classroom resources under the Health and Wellbeing and Science and Technology themes of the new curriculum for Wales.

As you can tell my role is very varied and I love it!

To find out a little more about what I do please visit my professional profile at Cardiff University.