Outreach and public engagement at the Sainsbury Laboratory

Inspiring and educating the next generation of plant scientists

Inspiring an interest in plant science is a key part of what we do.

Public engagement

A main outcome of fundamental research is the transmission of new knowledge to the wider society.

The first ambition of public engagement at the Sainsbury Laboratory is to make science more inclusive and accessible by instilling a better understanding of what science is about.

Our very existence depends on plants, but plants are fascinating ‘beasts’ worth studying in their own right. The second goal of public engagement is to popularise this idea and challenge people’s perception of plants.

Engaging members of the public in the scientific process

We value public engagement to highlight the importance of plant science research and discuss our work with many people. We aim to inspire the next generation of plant scientists and run public engagement events for secondary school students and their teachers.

We create interactive activities based on our research to engage broad audiences with the scientific process. Our public engagement projects cover various subjects, disciplines, and tools, encouraging participants to think like researchers and develop ideas and skills to better understand the research process.

We use the research performed at the Sainsbury Laboratory as a source of inspiration and ideas as this allows us to harness the expertise and enthusiasm of our researchers.  Our Outreach Committee meets regularly to plan for each outreach event.

Citizen science projects

We develop modular public engagement programmes like the Great British Liverwort Hunt that can involve many different audiences and has participants directly contributing to our research goals. This is also a great way to give many Sainsbury Lab people an opportunity to participate in different ways.

Get involved

Email our Outreach and Events Team at events@slcu.cam.ac.uk to find out about our outreach projects.