COVID-19 has cast a shadow that few of us could ever have imagined. Around the world, families are grieving, lives have been put on hold, finances are squeezed. The crisis is not yet over, but hopeful stories are emerging.

In a new series, we hear how individuals across the University community have coped with unexpected experiences, found new opportunities and are looking to the future.

Head of Public Engagement, Lucinda Spokes, describes the difficult decision to pull the plug on the 26th Cambridge Science Festival in March this year and reflects on the breathtaking flexibility of the Festival going digital – at least for now.

We knew 2020 might not be the most straightforward year for our Public Engagement team to run a Festival.

Possible protests, supporting academics on strike to take part in the festival (or not, as they wished) and a student occupation of our office the week before launch all made organisation more of a challenge for an event which normally involves 90 volunteers, 1,000 researchers and around 65,000 visits from festival goers.

But the Science Festival has been running in Cambridge for the previous 25 years and we’d experienced all of these before. The weather was looking kinder too, no snow or storms in the forecast as in the previous two years. We were ready.

What we hadn’t factored in was a global pandemic.

"There is nothing quite like the experience of seeing how hands-on activities can explain complex ideas to everyone." Image from a previous festival (credit: Gurdon Institute).

"There is nothing quite like the experience of seeing how hands-on activities can explain complex ideas to everyone." Image from a previous festival (credit: Gurdon Institute).

Four days in, we took the extremely difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the Festival. It was such a difficult choice to make but the only one we believed possible given the circumstances in the UK in March. The following day, the Premier League decided to stop playing. I don’t think their decision was based on ours but…!

For me personally, this was to be my last Festival in charge. I have now moved to head up the Public Engagement Team so it was a very sad way to end what has been an amazing job and a huge privilege. Each year we share the work of the University and our Festival partners with tens of thousands of members of the public. The many conversations we have during the Festival inspire and enthuse our visitors and challenge our researchers to think differently about their research.

So what next? After years of promoting live in-person public engagement – and I have to say there is nothing quite like the experience of being at a heated debate in our lecture theatres or seeing how hands-on activities can explain complex ideas to everyone – we are entering the new world of digital. We are really excited about the new possibilities this brings.

We’ve developed a new online Engaged Researcher training programme to equip academics with the skills they will need to engage digitally and we’ve all been watching lots of online festivals and learning from them.

Volunteers from across the City, Schools and the University support the festival. Image from a previous festival (credit: Domininkas Zalys).

The Festivals share Cambridge research with tens of thousands of people each year. Image from a previous festival (credit: Jacqueline Garget).

Volunteers from across the City, Schools and the University support the festival. Image from a previous festival (credit: Domininkas Zalys).

The Festivals share Cambridge research with tens of thousands of people each year. Image from a previous festival (credit: Jacqueline Garget).

"Whatever happens next, it’s exciting to think that what we learn this year by going digital will create new opportunities to share Cambridge research both locally and across the globe. We’ll be ready."

Plans are already coming together for the new online interdisciplinary Cambridge Festival in March 2021.

As well as traditional talks and debates with speakers from across the world, we’re looking at creating short films, animations and online exhibitions, live Q&A sessions, bite-size introductions to topical research themes, personal stories to inspire young people to consider a career in research, online workshops and performances, virtual pub quizzes, and virtual tours of laboratories, museums and libraries.

We’re also very mindful of the digital divide and so our plans include physical resource packs and instructions for off-screen activities that can be done at home.

And by March next year, we really hope that we will be able to run some small pop-up events around Cambridge so that we can reach people in-person in our local community.

Whatever happens next, it’s exciting to think that what we learn this year by going digital will create new opportunities to share Cambridge research both locally and across the globe. We’ll be ready.

The Public Engagement team works across the University and in partnership with external organisations to support researchers, public engagement professionals and members of the public to engage with research. Please get in touch to find out more about the team’s work and the new digital Festival.

Words: Lucinda Spokes
Design: Zoe Smith
Photography: Nick Saffell
Typography: Balvir Friers
Series Editor: Louise Walsh

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