Dear users of the PE2020 website

We are happy to invite you to take a look at Deliverable 1.1. The report contains an inventory of 250 public engagement initiatives from Europe and beyond. Collectively, the engagement initiatives presented in the report provide evidence of the heterogeneous and creative practices which are currently employed in public engagement activities.

 As a way of reducing complexity, the 250 specific PE initiatives have been sorted under 76 generic engagement mechanisms, and these have, in turn, been arranged and presented under five main headings: ‘public communication’, ‘public activism’, ‘public consultation’, ‘public deliberation’, and ‘public participation’. This typology of PE is inspired by earlier work within this field. The characteristics of PE initiatives and mechanisms differ across the five categories, both with regard to how engagement is initiated and with regard to the direction of the flow of information between the public, scientists, and policy-makers.

We hope that the inventory will be a useful resource for international learning within this area, and we welcome any comments that you might have.

– Niels –