The 10^th, and final, Annual CoE Away Day was held on the 24^th of November 2017 at the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle, Co. Down (#coeawd17). Just over 130 delegates including teachers and students from St. Louise’s Comprehensive College and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and invited guests from the Community Development and Health Network (CHDN), the Public Health Agency (PHA) and Belfast Healthy Cities.

In typical CoE fashion, Dr Hugh Campbell, resumed his role as our excellent facilitator for the day. After an energetic start, including various interactive icebreakers and intermingling, we were tasked with constructing a giant Christmas themed jigsaw puzzle with the help of the entire CoE stationary cupboard - glitter, tinsel, cotton wool, crepe paper - you know, just the usual office items!      

Our first guest speaker Professor Alicia O'Cathain (University of Sheffield) helped us take a look at how we could develop new ways to improve health. Dr Denise O'Hagan, on behalf of the Faculty of Public Health in NI, then provided details for those interested in joining the Faculty of Public Health.

In a change of proceedings this year, we created a more intimate setting for our usual 'stand and deliver' PhD presentations, which were all well received at their respective tables. Prior to lunch we also conducted the CoE version of the popular BBC Room 101 series. This was a comedic look back over the past 10 years of CoE funding, in which our invited panellists (Prof Roger O'Sullivan [IPH], Prof Jayne Woodside [CoE], Dr Aideen Maguire [CoE], Dr Laura Dunne [CESI] and Joanne Morgan [CDHN]) were asked to select an item that represented an aspect of the CoE in the past decade that they valued or would like to keep, and an aspect that they would like to change, would rather forget or dump. We had some very thoughtful recollections from the panellists including Rodger's nod to further funding of longitudinal studies such as NICOLA, ELSA, TILDA and HAGGIS, Joanne's acknowledgement of Prof Lindsey Prior's advocacy towards community engagement in research, and Jayne's appreciation of Prof Frank Kee's energy and devotion to Public Health research; aptly represented with the retention of a haggis, pair of jazzy shoes and a bouncing Tiger respectively. Perhaps most humorous of all, were the items representing things which the panellists would like to see binned, which included gender inequality (Barbie doll), the pecha kucha presentation format (a clock) and Research Fish (Nemo soft toy).

Following lunch we had a joint presentation from the Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) (Joanne Morgan and Jenny Hanna) and Prof Lindsay Prior (CoENI) examining community-based interventions to improve people's health. This was followed by an enlightening presentation from Matt Bird (Relationology International, @relationology) focussing on how in building unlikely relationships you experience unlikely opportunities. Knocking us up a gear, if that was at all possible, we had another excellent and lively presentation from our last guest speaker of the day Dr Zoe Williams (@DrZoeWilliams) entitled 'Walking the walk, and talking the talk', which seen us get up out of our seats, interactively cast our opinions, and develop our motivational interviewing skills to elicit behaviour change.

Once again creativity was key to the day, and this was no more evident, than in the various poster displays which summarised, in the most innovative of ways, the depth and breadth of research being undertaken in the centre. A special mention must go to Aideen Johnson (School of Education) for winning the best poster competition for her 'spot the difference' themed systematic review of school-based physical activity interventions. Praise too, to Dr Aideen Maguire and Rachel O'Neill who also won prizes for their creative displays on the day.   

The day ended with a wonderful '10 up' presentation by Prof Frank Kee, summarising a few of the successes from the centre over the past 10 years of CoE funding, and his closing remarks and words of thanks.

Public engagement, as defined by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), is a term used to describe the myriad of ways in which academics can better connect the work of universities and research institutes with the public. It is by definition a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit.

Public engagement is nothing new to the Centre of Excellence for Public Health Northern Ireland (CoENI). In these highlights, we take a moment to review the various platforms used for public engagement over the past 12 months (2017).

The staff and students of CoE have participated in at least 7 local outreach activities spanning events in the Northern Ireland Science Festival (health benefits of the Mediterranean diet and Foyle arena research showcase), World antibiotic awareness week (W5), Culture Night Belfast (Carnival for a Cure – CRUK), Science uncovered event at the Ulster Museum (European researcher’s night), the 2017 Balmoral show and Queen’s University Belfast research showcase event. Many of the Staff and students of the centre are also STEM ambassadors, volunteering their time, enthusiasm and experiences to encourage and inspire young people to progress further in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

As a centre, we look forward to a very successful run of public engagement events in 2018.

Anne has recently secured a Research Council Policy Internship with the Northern Ireland Assembly. For three months next year, she will be on secondment to the Executive’s Research and Information Service (RaISe) at Stormont. The policy internships are designed to give PhD students funded by one of the Research Councils first-hand experience of working within influential policy organisations. RaISe provides research and information for Assembly members (when there are any!), their staff and the secretariat across the wide range of business areas which are devolved to the Executive.  At this stage, it has not been confirmed what area Anne will be working within, but it is likely to be the Finance & Economics research team. While on the internship it is expected that Anne will work within the team on various topics and over the three months she will be producing briefing papers, getting involved in policy inquiries and helping to organise policy events.  Anne's hope is that the internship will help in her future academic career by giving her insight into how policymakers use academic research and how best to produce policy relevant research for Northern Ireland.

This year Dr Michael O’Rorke, Public Health Intelligence Officer for the CoENI, was successful in applying for the Royal Society Pairing Scheme. This scheme gives research scientists the opportunity to learn about how parliament and government work, build lasting relationships with parliamentarians and civil servants, and illustrate how research can feed into the policy world.

Each year the society shortlists 60 applicants, but is only able to find a pairing for approximately 30. Unfortunately, The Royal Society was unable to find Michael a pairing for this year’s scheme, however like 30 others, he was able to attend the introductory components, take part in a tour of parliament buildings, workshops in Portcullis house and hear from invited speakers including the Rt Hon John Bercow MP.

For the 30 research scientists which were paired with UK parliamentarians and civil servants this year, they spent two further days shadowing their pair in Westminster. After the ‘Week in Westminster’, it is the turn of the parliamentarians and civil servants to get an insight into the world of research, undertaking reciprocal visits with their pairs.

This is a fantastic scheme and more applications from Northern Ireland would be welcomed.