Broadcast - how one researcher's training helped increase her confidence to work with the broadcast industry

Elizabeth Hurren, a Wellcome Trust History of Medicine Fellow, has worked with the broadcast community on a number of occasions and has always believed that academics can do more to engage the public with their work. She feels passionately about the importance of communicating her research and loves having the opportunity to excite people when she talks about her work.

Over the last two years, Elizabeth's approach to working with radio and TV has changed. Rather than being the passive expert, who reacts to the questions that she is asked, Elizabeth has made the conscious step towards becoming more active in the way she goes about her public engagement work:

"I am now much more involved in the creative process that takes place during the production of a radio or TV programme and I feel that I am making a worthwhile and valid contribution to the direction in which a programme takes."

Elizabeth believes that the Wellcome Trust's narrative skills workshop increased her confidence, enabling her to work effectively in partnership with those in the broadcast field. This new confidence has also helped Elizabeth in her application for a Broadcast Development Award from the Wellcome Trust. The award, which she applied for in collaboration with Pier Productions, has helped Elizabeth to be at the heart of the documentary development process; where her story-telling skills are constantly being put to good use. Elizabeth is a strong advocate of the public engagement training that Wellcome provides and says "at the heart of any public engagement should be a good story."

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