Event planning, resources and opportunities

Be Curious 2022

Be Curious returned to campus on Saturday 7th May 2022! Now entering its seventh year, Be Curious, the University’s annual research open event, is a platform to celebrate and showcase the fantastic research happening at the University. We want to inspire our community and get them thinking about the true value of research: to them, to the city and to society.

We are planning the next instalment of Be Curious LIVE for  Saturday 6th May 2023 and continue to have a real emphasis on encouraging families to explore research through hands-on, making, doing and creating.

The call for proposals for Be Curious 2023 will open in early 2023.

Be Curious LATES

Join us for our upcoming winter series of Be Curious LATES events, exclusively for grown-ups!

Each night, we invite you to meet three of our researchers and get to grips with the world-leading and wondrous research that goes on inside a university.

View our upcoming LATES events on the Be Curious website.

View recordings of our previous Be Curious LATES events in our LATES YouTube playlist.

If you are interested in delivering a talk or proposing a theme for a future Be Curious LATES event, please contact us peteam@leeds.ac.uk

Be Curious 2021

The sixth annual Be Curious was held as a 10-day virtual event, running from 5th to 15th July 2021. The event was the second entirely online iteration of Be Curious

Family audiences were invited to ‘design, imagine, make do, glue, explore and more’ through our Be Curious GOES LIVE programme. Adult audiences were encouraged to ‘explore the world-leading to the wondrous’ research happening at Leeds through a brand new series of livestreamed Be Curious LATES evening events. To complement and support the live event programme, we shared a series of pre-recorded 2min Be Curious WITH US videos via social media throughout the duration of Be Curious 2021.

Catch up with all Be Curious 2021 content and watch our livestreamed events back on the Be Curious website and check out content shared using the hashtag #BeCurious21 on Twitter.

Be Curious 2020

In October 2020, Be Curious went virtual and we pulled out all the stops to make it a not-to-be-missed, two-week, online extravaganza. With live family events, fun activities, challenges and inspiring evening talks, we made sure there was something for everyone to enjoy!

Over 100 researchers were involved in creating content – from 2-minute demonstrations to try at home activities, research-related digital jigsaws to cartoon strips – to help the public explore just some of the exciting things we get up to at the University of Leeds.

Catch up with all the content shared on the Be Curious padlet or check out the hashtag #BeCurious20 on Twitter.

#BeCuriousGoesVirtual

In June 2020, Be Curious went virtual while the country was in lockdown.

We shared three weeks of exciting and inspiring family friendly resources and video content to help the public explore just some of the world-leading research happening at the University of Leeds.

Catch up with all the content from Demonstration Week, Arts and Crafts Week and Question Week on the Be Curious Virtual padlet. You can download the Be Curious activities designed by our researchers to try at home or check out the hashtag #BeCuriousGoesVirtual on Twitter.

Write up from 2019: Be Curious 2019

Engaged Research – home to all the latest opportunities and resources

The Engaged Research Microsoft Team is now home to a wide range of resources and guidance for planning and delivering your engagement event.

The team has an overview of local and national festivals and events. Opportunities to get involved in engagement activity are also promoted on Engaged Research regularly.

You can join using the code fc84jre

Borrow our resources

You can borrow A-frames, clipboards, clickers, etc. Book here (only accessible for UoL staff members).

Museums and University Public Engagement Programme (MUPEP)

Do you want to reach and engage a wider audience with your research? Do you want training from experts in the museum sector who do this on a daily basis? Do you want to develop an engagement activity based around your research area?

Aims of the programme
  • To allow researchers to engage with public audiences by either i) gaining experience in working with the public ii) developing and delivering dissemination activities to support researchers’ work or iii) recruiting a public audience to allow co-design and production of a research project.
  • To appropriately evaluate the activities delivered and report these back to the University, museum and funding body.
  • To work in a coordinated way with the University PE team and the museum sector to aid training of researchers in dissemination, co-design and production with the public audiences that museums attract.

Download further details or read about an example at EUREKA!

If you are seeking a research collaboration with a museum, contact the Cultural Institute.

Currently, the following museums are happy to work with us under this scheme:

  • Leeds Central Library
  • Leeds City Museum
  • Science and Media Museum, Bradford
  • Royal Armouries, Leeds
  • Eureka! The Children’s Museum, Halifax
  • Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds
  • National Railway Museum, York
  • Bradford Museums and Galleries
  • Our own: the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery and the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery