Our History

1987 

The Science Shop was founded with Nuffield Public Understanding of Science funding, based in the Sociology department in QUB and working across both QUB and UU. One part-time member of staff worked to build the idea of community engaged research in both the local community and across the two universities. Our key focus at this time was building trust with community partners and developing pilot projects with academic staff who were bought into the idea of community engagement, mainly in Sociology. 

1988 

We made contact with Science Shops in the Netherlands and began to build links with like-minded organisations across Europe. We were part of the SCIPAS project team who successfully applied  for European Commission (EC)  funding to develop resources for those who wanted to set up Science Shops. Through this we were founding members of the Living Knowledge International Science Shop Network. 

1995

Ulster University appointed a dedicated member of staff to work in The Science Shop. Both Science Shops worked collaboratively and there was a joint management and advisory board structure.   

1999

We applied for and received 3 year funding from the National Lotteries Charity Board (now Big Lottery) to support building research infrastructure in the community sector in NI. A full time Science Shop Assistant was appointed alongside the existing part-time Science Shop co-ordinator. Our focus was mainly on building capacity and interest outside the university, whilst working to develop capacity inside the university.

2000

Changes in the wider university environment and in university itself meant that community engagement with higher education was becoming more valued. Our work began to feel more aligned with wider university policy and this offered us an opportunity to spread out beyond sociology into anthropology and environmental sciences. We moved into the Centre for Enhancing Learning and Teaching in order to build links more effectively in teaching and learning.

2002

We were moved into the Regional Office which had been established under the Research Directorate in the University. Our strategic focus became serving the needs of community organisations and enhancing the quality of student research projects. We moved from project-based funding to being funded under the Higher Education Innovation Fund. The Assistant Co-ordinator post was made permanent and this funding allowed us to add a part-time clerical position to the team.

2003 - 2005

We partnered with European colleagues in the ISSNET project which enhanced community access to use of scientific information and resources and build capacity for community-based research. We helped produce a series of usable resources for other Science Shops. 

2005

A new PVC post was created at QUB with responsibility for reaching out to local communities. We worked closely with him to develop the first Queen’s in the Community strategy and to build infrastructure for community engagement in QUB. This helped to build our profile both within the university and community. We broadened our reach and began working with Management and Biomedical programmes 

2009

We hosted the 4th Living Knowledge Science Shop conference in QUB. We worked closely with international partners and it helped us re-establish our key role in the network. 

2010

As part of a restructuring in the university we moved into Careers, Employability and Skills in the Education directorate. We learned a lot about effective ways to work with students and thought deeply about how to streamline processes of working with students whilst keeping a quality of outcome.  

2010 - 2014

Between 2010-2014 we were partners in the PERARES EC project which trialled different ways of doing public engagement with research. We led a work package which focused on building engagement into academic curricula and policy development. We also mentored new Science Shops in Ireland, France and Norway.  

2015 - 2018

In working on the PERARES project, we became convinced that embedding engagement in curricula was the way forward for The Science Shop. We went on to develop the EnRRICH project which focused on embedding Responsible Research and Innovation (this was the framework the EC was putting around engagement at that time) in curricula. We acted as Deputy Co-ordinator on this project and led a work package on policy development, as well as taking responsibility for co-ordinating project content. We mentored Science shops in Hungary and Spain. The work in this programme helped us reach out to our Engineering, Architecture and Planning departments which helped us refocus on postgraduate teaching, embedding our work at Masters level in Management programmes. 

2016

Our increasing focus on curriculum development led to us moving into the Centre for Educational Development in QUB. This offered us the opportunity to work directly with colleagues involved in curriculum development.

2019

Our work in CED and on EnRRICH led to us co-ordinating a project under Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership funding. The CIRCLET project helped us deliver training to academics in 5 countries across Europe and develop a suite of resources for academics who want to embed community engaged research and learning in their curricula. This project enabled us to reach into new academic areas, including Computer Science, Dentistry, Maths and Arts Management at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels.  

2022

We were invited to take part in an EC project which focuses on soil literacy and education for soil health. The LOESS project will run until June 2026 and we are leading the UK Community of Practice and supporting partners to embed community engaged research and learning in their own teaching. We anticipate that this will help us build our presence more in the faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences as well as offer an opportunity to explore interdisciplinarity.  

2023

We were recognised by Advance HE for our excellence in collaborative teaching when we won QUB’s first Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence.  

2024

We moved into the newly established Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility Directorate.