The winners of the Inaugural Beltane Public Engagement Sparks Programme has been announced, with the ‘It’s not your fault’ project receiving this years’ funding.
The team, involving researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University aims to tackle the taboo around miscarriage by encourage communication and displaying information from scientific literature, making it accessible to a lay audience.
All applications received were of a very high quality, and it was a tough decision for the panel of Public Engagement Experts to pick just one. The panel agreed that this project was truly in keeping with the spirit of the Beltane Sparks awards, representing two-way mutually-beneficial engagement with an identified audience, across multiple institutions and research areas.
‘It’s not your fault’will be a free, informal one-off afternoon in Edinburgh Grassmarket Centre, which will offer support, advice, conversation and community assistance, bringing together those who have suffered a miscarriage. Their goal is to help families changing the way think about miscarriage by raising awareness about its causes and offering them the opportunity to discuss their experience, connecting with each other within a setting they would not routinely access.
Dr Michael Rimmer, an ECAT fellow at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh who lead this year’s team said “We are delighted to have been awarded the funding to run this event and that Beltane Sparkes have recognised the importance of this topic. Miscarriage is a devastating experience for any couple to go through and we hope to tackle some of the taboos around discussing miscarriage at our event”
Further information on the project will be available over the next few months.
Beltane Sparks is a new programme launched this year by the Beltane Public Engagement Network, a partnership between Edinburgh Napier University, Heriot-Watt University, Queen Margaret University and The University of Edinburgh. The Sparks programme will run again in summer 2020, so check back in early 2020 for details on when applications open.
