Our Aim

Our aim is to increase the quality and efficiency of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin’s Public Engagement, thus contributing to the museum’s academic, societal and environmental impact. We are doing this through research, impact planning and assessment, as well as culture change and co-creation processes.

What is our understanding of Public Engagement?

Public Engagement (PE) activities can actively and continuously involve anyone in our society, regardless of identity or background, particularly those with an interest in or connection to the topic. This aims to enrich the discourse around research topics with lived experience and valuable societal perspectives outside of academia. These contributors can be citizens, experts, NGOs, schools, children, associations, politicians or companies, to name just a few examples. Through PE, researchers, students, professors and representatives of research institutions enter into an equitable exchange with these communities. PE is an English language term that has become established internationally. By focusing on mutual benefit and exchange supporting society-oriented research, PE clearly differs from other forms of science communication. PE describes a field in the German research landscape, the practice of exchange between researchers and the public, and stands for the attitude that research and society benefit from mutual interaction.

Source: Public Engagement Principles, 2023. Joint publication between: Berlin School of Public Engagement and Open Science – Public Engagement & Impact Unit of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Cyber Valley, and the German community.

What is our understanding of Impact?

Broader or longer-term changes or effects resulting from a project’s activities. These effects and changes can have different impact spheres (e.g. societal, social, environmental, political, health, economic, cultural)*.

*Adapted from: your project and its outcomes, 2007. By Sally Cupitt with Jean Ellis for Charities Evaluation Services.

Our Objectives

Further align MfN’s Public Engagement with academic, societal, and environmental impact goals

Support the design of MfN’s Public Engagement initiatives that are impact-oriented

Explicitly include Public Engagement into the strategies of research institutions and career paths

Contribute to impact optimisation through research, best-practices, culture change, co-creation and multi-stakeholder processes.

IETI Work Packages (WPs)

IETI combines research, impact planning and assessment methodologies, as well as culture change and co-creation processes to optimise the impact of Museum für Naturkunde Berlin’s research and Public Engagement.
IETI’s research and practice are divided into three work packages:

Work package 1. Concepts & Contexts: Focuses on the mapping of stakeholders and public engagement (PE) initiatives, as well as initial perceptions of impact and practice. It also explores relevant concepts and frameworks.

Work package 2. Impact Planning & Assessment: Explores how MfN understands, practices, and evaluates its institutional and social impact. The goal is to develop tools for institutional self-evaluation and to promote reflexivity within institutions.

Work package 3. Culture Change & Co-creation: Examines MfN researchers' motivations, barriers, and needs regarding PE, and explores effective integration of PE, participation, and societal needs into MfN's research, including ways to recognize and incentivize researchers’ involvement in PE.

IETI will generate multiple research and practice outputs, recommendations on how to optimise the impact of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, several impact and culture change initiatives, practice reports for Public Engagement practitioners and professionals, and research articles for the academic community.

The project’s work is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals 14 (Life Below Water) and 15 (Life on Land).

Our team

Dr Alina Loth

Head of the Public Engagement
and Impact Unit & Head of IETI

Dr Ana Faustino

IETI Deputy Head and
Research Associate

Dr Zinaida Vasilyeva

Research Associate

Luise Proske

IETI Student Assistant

Konstanza Jochim

IETI Impact Project Coordinator

Contact

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the project or want to exchange ideas.

ieti@mfn.berlin

IETI - Impact-oriented
Public Engagement

c/o Alina Loth / Ana Faustino

Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Invalidenstraße 43
10115 Berlin
Germany

Funding:

IETI is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
© 2023, IETI. All rights reserved.

Dr Alina Loth

Head of the Public Engagement
and Impact Unit & Head of IETI

alina.loth@mfn.berlin

+49 30 889140-8473

/dr-alina-loth- -aa5906142/

“With IETI, we have a unique opportunity to unlock and maximise research potential. We are doing this by actively investing into institutional processes and strategies to open up research through Public Engagement in a sustainable way.”

Alina has been working for three years as Head of the Public Engagement and Impact Unit of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and is leading the IETI project since 2022. She focuses on support for researchers and professionals as well as institutional consultancy. She is leading on the strategical embedding of Public Engagement in academia and research culture change and worked both in Germany and the UK.

Dr Ana Faustino

IETI Deputy Head and
Research Associate

ana.faustino@mfn.berlin

+49 308 891 40-8122

/anaifaustino

“With IETI, we have the possibility to
better align museum’s research and Public Engagement with impact goals and global needs. We will do this through culture change and co-creation processes, as well as multi-stakeholder and incentive-based approaches.”

Ana has a background in behavioural biology research, and has been working professionally in the field of Public Engagement since 2018. She has worked in Portuguese, European and German institutions/projects, mainly using capacity building, co-creation, multi-stakeholder and impact methods/processes to promote change. Ana has been co-leading the IETI project since 2022, where she is responsible for project management, research and communication tasks, and leads the IETI work package on culture change and co-creation.

Dr Zinaida Vasilyeva

 Research Associate

zinaida.vasilyeva@mfn.berlin

+49 308 891 40-9059

/zinaida-vasilyeva-72ba5952

“As a researcher, I am interested in the politics of publics and how institutions design and implement them. For me, the IETI project is a great opportunity to further research and contribute to the dialogue between science and society in such a fantastic place as the MfN.”

Zinaida is an anthropologist interested in the politics of knowledge and relations between science, technology and society. She has worked in several research institutes in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, and the US. At IETI, she will research how different units of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin understand, practice and evaluate their Public Engagement initiatives to develop a more long-term oriented and reflexive methodology for Public Engagement within museums.

Luise Proske

IETI Student Assistant

luise.proske@mfn.berlin

+49 308 891 40-8477

“Public Engagement has the possibilities to break the stiff boundaries of academics,
and influences research and the generation of knowledge through its focus on lived
experience. With IETI we seek to start sustainable processes here at the museum to
help open a dialogue between society and science.”

Luise is studying sociolinguistics and anthropology and supports the IETI project as student assistant since October 2024. Through her studies she has gained awareness of
the importance of how we speak about things and how this affects the accessibility of research and science.

Konstanza Jochim

IETI Projektkoordinatorin Impact

konstanza.jochim@mfn.berlin

+49 30 889140-8814

„Ich bin von der Bedeutung multidisziplinärer und inklusiver Ansätze überzeugt, um globale Herausforderungen zu bewältigen und einen nachhaltigen Wandel zu fördern. Durch die Förderung von Public Engagement-Prozessen in der Forschung haben wir die Möglichkeit, einen wirkungsorientierten Dialog zwischen der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft und gesellschaftlichen Akteuren zu fördern, um die Forschung besser an den Bedürfnissen der Gesellschaft auszurichten.“

Konstanza absolvierte ihre akademische Ausbildung in den Bereichen Geografie und Design Thinking. Vor ihrer Zeit bei IETI arbeitete sie in der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und einem EU Horizon 2020 Forschungsprojekt (GIZ). Dort koordinierte sie in Zusammenarbeit mit zivilen Organisationen, Forschungseinrichtungen und politischen Akteuren Maßnahmen für nachhaltige Entwicklung durch Innovationsförderung und partizipative Ansätze. Bei IETI koordiniert Konstanza Forschungs- und Co-Creation-Prozesse, die darauf abzielen, einen nachhaltigen wissenschaftlichen Kulturwandel voranzutreiben und wirkungsorientiertes Public Engagement in die Forschung des Museum für Naturkunde Berlin zu integrieren.

Konstanza Jochim

IETI Impact Project Coordinator

konstanza.jochim@mfn.berlin

+49 30 889140-8814

“I am convinced of the importance of multidisciplinary and inclusive approaches to tackle global challenges and promote impactful change. By fostering Pubic Engagement processes in research, we have the opportunity to foster an impact-oriented dialogue between the scientific community and societal actors, to better align research with societal needs.”

Konstanza completed her academic training in the fields of Geography and Design Thinking. Prior to her time at IETI, she worked for several years in international development cooperation and in an EU Horizon 2020 research project (GIZ). There, she coordinated initiatives for sustainable development through innovation promotion and participatory approaches in collaboration with civil organizations, research institutions, and political stakeholders. At IETI, Konstanza coordinates research and co-creation processes aimed at driving a sustainable cultural change in research, and integrating impact-oriented Public Engagement into the museum´s research.