We set up a thought leadership programme to amplify PhD research

Academics have long believed we needed only to convince our peers of the validity of our research. Now social media makes it increasingly challenging for the public to get at the truth. We must share our informed ideas with them. The Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University has been committed to that since 2020.

Our OpenThink programme is part of the faculty’s larger professional development programme. Each year, we recruit between 13 and 17 PhD students to become Thinkers. They act as ambassadors for graduate studies and their work by sharing their PhD research and ideas through public engagement. Thinkers must write at least one short newsletter article each month that we publish on our blog site. We also encourage them to seek publication in popular media outlets.

Our OpenThink programme runs on a calendar year and we select our Thinkers by the middle of December the year before based on how well they write non-academically, ensuring maximum diversity in gender, ethnicity, topic of research, and research department.

How we recruit our Thinkers

When recruiting students for a scheme such as this, it is important to have buy-in from your communications office because a strong recruitment campaign is essential. It should begin several months before a new group starts. Effective practices to increase applications include publishing a news story in your campus newsletter and emailing staff, faculty and alumni to ask them to encourage people in their network to apply. This year, our communications manager created targeted emails to those who opened but didn’t click on the email and to those who didn’t open the email at all. A social media campaign highlighting the advantages of taking part and the deadline is also important.

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How we recruit our workshop leaders

Thinkers attend monthly workshops on how to communicate with the public, how to write about their work and ideas, how to publicise them and how to respond to interviews. Most workshops are open to all graduate students and offer a very hands-on approach.

The easiest way to source workshop leaders is to seek out expertise within your university’s network. In our case, Dalhousie has a close relationship with the University of Kings College in Nova Scotia, which trains students to communicate with the public. Award-winning journalists make up much of its faculty, so we invited those with facilitation skills who also had expertise in writing article pitches and using social media.

Students need substantial support to write non-academically. It doesn’t come naturally after years of training in academic writing. Hosting hands-on workshops gives individuals immediate feedback, builds a group dynamic and boosts confidence.

Having relationships with the press also helps. For example, Dalhousie has a relationship with The Conversation Canada. Other institutions may build relationships with media outlets such as local newspapers. Don’t limit yourself to the expertise within your faculty; one of Dalhousie’s Board of Governors works with a leading PR firm, which now offers us training, and Dalhousie’s Creative Director teaches students how to use images.

It is important to build relationships with trainers year after year if you want a committed group of educators. Alumni can also become trainers, because they understand the student experience.

OpenThink’s core topics

These are the topics we teach our Thinkers on the programme:

• Communicating research in three minutes (preparation for Dalhousie’s annual 3 Minute Thesis competition)
• Op-ed writing
• Writing for The Conversation. We now offer this training in three workshops: with the editor in chief; with a panel of published OpenThink alumni; with a pitch-writing and critiquing workshop
• Creating an identity
• Giving a great interview
• Creating engaging, meaningful images
• Building confidence through coaching

Individual coaching is essential. For OpenThink it involves:

• Reviewing all blogs students submit for the first two months and providing individual feedback on their writing
• Offering individual feedback on articles to submit to The Conversation Canada
• Providing extra editing help to students whose first language is not English. 

Building comradeship

Thinkers tell us that comradeship is one of the factors that appeals to them about OpenThink. At the first meeting of new Thinkers, the director and communications staff encourage Thinkers to build rapport by introducing themselves. They then discuss different aspects of the programme and its benefits and let them know that the director is available to help if needed. Throughout the year, organisers of the programme build comradeship by:

• Providing snacks and drinks at meetings
• Encouraging Thinkers to read and repost each other’s X (formerly Twitter) posts
• Having Thinkers share their work in workshops and learn from each other as well as from experts
• Creating a web page that refers to Thinkers as a group (for example, as Dalhousie’s latest thought leaders) and including an archive section with posts for each year’s cohort.

Public scholarship is not “one size fits all”. There are three other programmes similar to OpenThink in Canada. The University of British Columbia has the Public Scholars Initiative, which is the oldest programme, closely followed by Concordia’s Public Scholars, then Dalhousie’s OpenThink and, finally, the University of Toronto has its PhDs for Public Impact programme. Each was modelled on the ones that came before, and each was uniquely adapted to its setting.

Final tips for those interested in piloting a similar scheme:

• Institutional support from the unit that houses the programme is essential. In our case, the faculty dean actively supported and advocated for the programme from the beginning
• There must be one central resource person (a director) who provides year-long contact for Thinkers
• Institutions can run the programme at a relatively low cost. We offer modest stipends for Thinkers and our workshop leaders generously offer their expertise for free (we give them thank you gifts and cards). The director’s duties can be offered through secondment from a university department or through a sessional instructor position.
• OpenThinker alumni themselves provide a growing body of resources for the programme. They are strong advocates for the programme, encouraging applications. They act as trainers and their success stories raise the profile of the programme, resulting in more media interest.

OpenThink not only serves as a platform for PhD students to act as ambassadors of their research but aspires to cultivate a culture of public engagement in a world where the intersection of academia and the public sphere is crucial. The programme stands as a testament to the positive impact of proactive engagement and the sharing of informed ideas.

Lynne M. Robinson is co-founder and director of Dalhousie OpenThink.

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