Engagement Activities

Below are some highlights from the engagement activities developed by members of the Animal Research Nexus Programme. These include public engagement activities, artist collaborations, patient involvement resources, and activites designed to engage those involved in animal research in new kinds of conversations about their work. Please follow the links or get in touch with the people named below to find out more.

Cover of report from the Animal Research Nexus team on 'Informing involvement around animal research'

Research Involvement resources

The Animal Research Nexus team at the University of Exeter have developed a range of resources to help understand and support involvement with research for when conversations include animal research. By research involvement, we are referring to actitivies where members of the public are actively involved in research projects or organisations. This might include involvement in identifying research priorities for organisations, or as joint grant holders or co-applicants on a research project.

We worked with people involved in research, research scientists, and involvement and engagement professionals to understand the challenges of animal research for involvement. The challenges include the topic of animal research, involvement with 'upstream' laboratory research, and the complexities of translational research.

We published an Interim Report to share findings from our qualitative research with research participants in early 2019. We presented and published our work for different audiences and in academic articles, which you can explore on our project webpage. In 2022, we published a report covering practical next steps for Informing research involvement around animal research, which seeks to show how research involvement can be supported and situated alongside ethical review. We have also devised a training workshop for researchers considering using involvement or engagement in their work, which was part of Beth Greenhough's work on Care-full stories.

For more information contact:
Logo for the mouse exchange, featuring a crafted felt mouse

The Mouse Exchange is a public engagement activity that invites small groups of members of the public to make a mouse” with researchers, using felt, wool and other craft materials. Throughout the 20 or so minutes we spend together participants can explore the origins of laboratory mice through conversation and interaction with objects.

It is a curiosity-driven activity that creates a space for participants to relate to laboratory mice differently. Across a number of events, it has inspired excitement and intrigue, as well as intimate and reflective conversations on the subject of animal research.

You can read more about the development of the Mouse Exchange here or follow the link below to access the Mouse Exchange website and toolkit.

For more information contact:
For more about this activity see:
a brown mouse being held in a gloved hand by someone wearing a lab coat

Care-full Stories is an adaptable training toolkit for those working in the animal research sector. It uses fictionalized prompts as a resource for staging small group discussions around institutional cultures of care.

Workshops usually last between 2 and 3 hours, and seek to create a safe space for sharing experiences between those working in different roles in animal research. Participants welcome the chance to share their experience, to see their world from another’s perspective, and to recognize the importance of good communication in generating a supportive workplace culture.

You can read more about the development of care-full stories here or follow the link below to access the full set of training materials, including guidance for facilitators, suggested workshop introductions, and the different care-full stories scripts.

For more information contact:
Logo of a blue tree in a hexagon, representing a fictional science facility called Biocore

Vector is an immersive theatre experience that tasks participants with ethically reviewing the use of animal models in vaccine development. Participants are welcomed into the world of Biocore, the ethical pharmaceutical company, who are keen to involve the public across their research pathways. Teams compete against each other to deliver the most ethical research proposal possible. 

Vector uses elements of performance, gameplay and integrated technology to allow participants to make decisions and react to their consequences, in an expanding narrative that spans across different aspects of the animal research nexus.

This work was developed with our creative partners The Lab Collective. Vector premiered in 2019 and shortlised for the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2021 in the category 'Science Engagement'.

You can read more about the development of Vector here or follow the link below to access the website

For more information contact:
For more about this activity see:
Cartoon of an orange fish, based on the fortune-telling fish from a Christmas cracker

Find out how you really feel about fish! The psychic fish is an interactive encounter that invites people to think about fish and their use in research. Playing on the classic Fortune Teller Fish game were all familiar with from Christmas crackers, Psychic Fish reveals to participants their true” feelings about fish. Weve developed an online version of the game, which features a series of questions prompting people to reflect on what the Psychic Fish made them think about. 

You can read more about the development of Psychic Fish here or follow the link below to access the website.

For more information contact:
For more about this activity see:
Image of pill packets

This engagement activity invites people to draw a label which could be used to denote the role of animal research in the production of medicines. Our aim was to use the hypothetical idea of labelling in order to open up questions about animal research, and about potential futures.

The activity provokes challenging questions such as: What could an animal research label look like? If such a label were rolled out, what would be the societal consequences? And how can collaboration with artists encourage new and fruitful discussions about animal research?

You can read more about the development of this activity here or follow the link below to access some images and reflections on the issues around labelling animal research.

For more information contact:
For more about this activity see:
The Work is an installation made of clay bricks and mice

The Work

Are research animals an invisible workforce within a city? Making a murine workforce from the same red clay that built Manchester as an industrial city, we were able to ask, what does it mean to be part of a community; to be shaped out of and work for it? How do we define who or what works for us and what work do we allow to be visible choose to keep discreet? How do our levels of comfort and understanding of particular work and workers shape how we value and acknowledge contributions to our environment and our lives?

This work was develop in partnership with our creative partner Rob Hopper. You can explore more about The Work through the Gallery Guide that accompanied its exhibition in Manchester Museum as part of the Manchester Science Festival in 2019.
 

For more information contact:

Relevant, tagged site content:

Engagement Activities

The Mouse Exchange is a public engagement activity that invites small groups of members of the public to

Vector is an immersive theatre experience that tasks participants with ethically reviewing the use of animal models in vaccine development.

Publications

This book features highlights from the Animal Research Nexus Programme to demonstrates how the humanities and social sciences can contribute to understanding what is created through animal procedures - including constitutional forms of research governance, different institutional cultures of care, the professional careers of scientists and veterinarians, collaborations with patients and publics, and research animals, specially bred for experiments or surplus to requirements.

Developing the idea of the animal research nexus, this book explores how connections and disconnections are made between these different elements, how these have reshaped each other historically, and how they configure the current practice and policy of UK animal research.

The Mouse Exchange (Mx) is a curiosity-driven activity that explores the origins of laboratory mice through crafting and conversations. It forms part of the Public Engagement programme of the Animal Research Nexus. This MX toolkit provides guidance about the materials needed to set up a MX event and provides a guide to facilitators about how to hold conversations that meet the aims of the Mx.

This poster presents through provocations from our public engagement approach, which seek to weave in new perspectives, allow new communities to form and meaningfully connect, so we may collaboratively face emerging challenges for science and society together.

Blog entry

Written by: Emma Roe

At the closing ‘Researching Animal Research’ conference, we were delighted to bring together a set of diverse speakers to discuss perspectives on using creative methods for thinking about animal research.

Written by: Pru Hobson-West

By Pru Hobson-West, in conversation with Carlie Sorosiak

Introduction

Written by: Reuben Message, Beth Greenhough, Bentley Crudgington

We’ve created a ‘Do-It-Yourself’ version of our favourite fish – the AnNex Psychic Fish.

Written by: Reuben Message

In our work on the cultures of care and communication in animal research, we often asked ourselves the question: why are fish not the ‘poster critters’ of animal research? 

Written by: Ally Palmer, Reuben Message, Beth Greenhough, Bentley Crudgington

How does how you feel about fish shape how fish get to feel?

Written by: Bentley Crudgington, Gail Davies

Vector is an interactive experience, which uses elements of performance, game, and integrated technology to open up dialogue about the ethical dilemmas of using animals as part of medical research.

Written by: Bentley Crudgington

When you build a world you have the luxury (and burden) of designing everything within it.

Written by: Renelle McGlacken

On the 21st May, Pru Hobson-West and I dipped our toes into public engagement around animal research at the Nottingham Pint of Science Festival 2019.

Written by: Bentley Crudgington, Emma Roe, Sara Peres

There is no qualitative research into public understanding of the origins of research animals, which is a particular area of interest for the Markets and Materials strand.

Written by: Bentley Crudgington

A directive of the Collaboration and Communication strand of the Animal Research Nexus is to produce dynamic pubic engagement activities that connect different pers

Events

How, why (and why not) are fish utilised as mascots in public engagement with animal research? 

Have you ever thought about the role that animals play in producing new medicines? Want to try a creative way of thinking about this topic?

Our ‘Psychic Fish’ intervention had another successful outing last Friday night at the Oxford Museum of Natural History.

For many, talking about animal research remains taboo. As a way of highlighting one of the roles that animal research plays, some have suggested labelling medicines as ‘tested on animals’. But is the act of labelling so simple?

Join researchers from the University of Southampton for a family day suitable for all ages.

Where do lab mice come from? Where do they end up? Joins us for crafting felt mice to exchange or take home. You can also explore the history, practices, and ideas of care involved in making laboratory mice.

Where do lab mice come from? Where do they end up? Joins us for crafting felt mice to exchange or take home. You can also explore the history, practices, and ideas of care involved in making laboratory mice.

Take part in live experiments, chat to scientists and get hands-on with innovative activities based on cutting edge research in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Friday 28 September is European Researcher’s night, and for the fourth time Manchester Museum will be hosting Science Uncovered Manchester - a special late opening showcasing Manchester’s finest researchers and their work for an adult audience.

“Hi. How are you?” This is a common greeting used to ask about health, but has anyone ever asked you; “did you come alone?” We’ll be exploring these questions in a short, interactive, one-on-one scenario.

Announcements

We are delighted to announce that Vector has been selected as a finalist for  Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2021 in the category Science Engagement. 

We are so delighted to announce that the Mouse Exchange has been recognised for its public engagement work by winning the 7th Annual Openness Awards, awarded by the Concorda

Project partners

Paul is an interdisciplinary researcher and artist, with an interest in nonhuman animals, performance and public engagement.

The Lab Collective create interactive, visceral live experiences; treading the line between theatre, game and installation, The Lab Collective empower the audience to collaborate in our performances.