How do we make research and innovation feel open, trusted and relevant?

Discover Festival 2026 opened Newcastle University’s campus to 2,500 visitors for a day of hands-on research, innovation, creativity and conversation. But the value of the festival goes beyond one day: it shows how universities can build curiosity, trust and connection by making research and innovation visible, accessible and rooted in people’s lives.

Contents:

1. Why public connection to research matters
2. A civic gateway into the University
3. Designing for curiosity and connection
4. Bringing innovation and partnership to life
5. Benefits for researchers, staff, and students
6. Turning engagement into impact
7. Looking ahead

Universities have a vital role to play in addressing societal challenges, from health and climate to technology, skills and regional growth. But public value is not created by research and innovation alone. It depends on whether people can see, understand, question and connect with the work universities do. At Newcastle University, Discover Festival allows us to open up that conversation.

Why public connection to research matters

Universities are increasingly asked to show not only what they know, but what they are for. At a time when research, innovation and higher education are central to addressing key local, national and international challenges, public trust and understanding cannot be taken for granted.

Recent public attitudes research makes this clear. CaSE’s Public Attitudes to R&D 2025 found that while support for government investment in research and development remains high, only 29% of the public feel a personal connection or interest in research and development (R&D), and 74% say they know nothing or hardly anything about R&D taking place in their local area. The Public Attitudes to Science 2025 survey also found that just 12% of people think the public is sufficiently involved in decisions about science and technology.

This matters for universities. Excellent research does not automatically create public understanding, trust or social licence. People need opportunities to encounter research in ways that feel open, human, local and relevant to their lives.

At Newcastle University, Discover Festival is one way we are approaching this challenge.

Discover Festival 2026 welcomed 2,500 visitors to the Newcastle University central campus.

A civic gateway into the University

Now in its second year, Discover Festival is our flagship public engagement festival: a free, campus-based event that showcases our research, innovation, education, facilities and partnerships to families, communities and partners across the region.

It also reflects the spirit of Next Generation Newcastle: a University rooted in place, connected globally, focused on societal need, working through partnership and turning ideas into impact.

Newcastle University’s strategy describes a future in which knowledge and opportunity are created through partnership and responsive collaboration, with lasting impact through education, research and engagement.

The aim of Discover Festival is not simply to showcase what happens inside the University. It is to create a civic gateway into it: a space where visitors can ask questions, meet researchers, explore buildings and facilities, and see how university knowledge connects to the issues, places and futures they care about.

On Saturday 13 June 2026, that approach brought an estimated 2,500 people onto our city centre campus. Visitors explored 65 interactive activities, workshops and performances, delivered by more than 300 academics, students, and Professional Services colleagues.

Storm in a Teacup performed bubble shows on King’s Walk.

Designing for curiosity and connection

When planning the festival, we drew on previous festival feedback, wider public engagement best practice, and the core principle that people value opportunities to participate, not just receive information.

That means that activities are designed to be hands-on, conversational and accessible. Visitors are invited to make, build, test, experiment, play, and explore. Families can learn together across generations, with children, parents and grandparents encountering research through shared experience rather than formal presentation.

This cross-generational learning is important. A child may come because they want to fly a drone or meet a robot; a parent may leave having had a conversation about water quality, AI, health research ,or future skills – the important part is that they experience the festival together. The festival works best when curiosity moves between people: from researcher to child, from child to parent, and from family back into conversations at home, school or work.

In 2026, visitors stepped inside labs, studios, cultural venues and social spaces to explore black holes in an inflatable planetarium, fly mini drones, experience zero gravity through virtual reality, meet robots, investigate health and engineering, take part in creative making, and discover the breadth of research, innovation and education taking place at Newcastle University.

The evaluation shows this approach works. 97% of online survey respondents rated their overall experience as good or very good, and 93% said the festival made them feel curious or motivated to learn more.

Families took on the ‘Marshmallow Madness’ challenge to build towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows.

Bringing innovation and partnership to life

One of the clearest examples of this in practice was Smart Skies – Mini Drone Challenge, an activity that brought together research, innovation, and partnership in a way visitors could immediately identify with and understand.

Delivered with Northumbrian Water and Kohtari, the activity connected directly to Smart Skies Health Waters, a project led by Northumbrian Water in collaboration with Newcastle University and other partners. Families could discover how colleagues are using drones, AI, and a mobile laboratory to transform water quality monitoring when looking after our coastal waters – a topic that is repeatedly discussed in the news.

Whilst having a go at flying a mini drone in the Smart Skies Challenge, visitors simulated how these partners are using drone technology to help monitor hard-to-access areas and build a clearer picture of what is happening in our rivers and seas.

For a public audience, this is a powerful form of engagement. The activity was not just about drone flying as a spectacle, it showed how research in data, engineering and environmental monitoring comes together with business partnerships and creates public value around an issue people care about: the health of rivers, seas and beaches.

That is where public engagement adds value to innovation. It helps make emerging technologies visible, usable and trusted by connecting them to everyday life.

Kohtari and Northumbrian Water taught visitors how to fly mini drones as part of the Smart Skies Challenge.

Benefits for researchers, staff, and students

Discover Festival also creates value for those who deliver it. For academics and researchers, public engagement can sharpen how we explain our work. It asks us to think about what people already know, what they care about, and what kind of activity will make an idea meaningful.

For Professional Services colleagues, technicians, students and partners, it creates opportunities to collaborate across teams and bring specialist knowledge into public view.

The staff survey showed strong outcomes. After taking part, 100% of staff respondents felt confident engaging with the public, 84% said the festival helped their work reach a wider audience, and 52% said public feedback positively influenced their thinking.

At its best, a festival becomes a learning environment for everyone involved.

Ask a Scientist LIVE put 5 scientists through their paces as they took audience questions in a live recording of the From Newcastle podcast.

Turning engagement into impact

For the public, Discover Festival created a day of curiosity, learning and inspiration. For researchers and staff, it created a platform to share work, develop skills and hear directly from audiences. For the University, it strengthened public understanding of our research, innovation and education.

The evaluation found that 97% of respondents agreed Newcastle University’s research and education benefit the North East, and 94% agreed that Newcastle University is an open and engaging institution.

Perhaps most impressively, the impact also continued beyond the day itself: 88% of respondents said they had discussed a festival topic afterwards, 53% had looked up more information, and 50% planned to volunteer, participate in research or attend another University event.

Visitors could have a conversation with Pepper the robot, powered by AI.

Looking ahead

Delivering a large-scale public engagement festival takes significant planning, collaboration and care. But the value is clear. When universities open up their knowledge, people, facilities and partnerships in accessible and imaginative ways, they can build curiosity, trust, confidence and connection.

For Newcastle University, Discover Festival is becoming a key platform to bring Next Generation Newcastle to life: working in partnership, responding to societal need, connecting the local and the global, and turning ideas into impact with and for the communities we serve.

Colleagues and partners interested in showcasing their research, innovation or partnerships at a future Discover Festival can contact discover@newcastle.ac.uk

You might also like:

• find out more about what happens at Discover Festival
• explore Next Generation Newcastle, our vision for turning strategic ambition into institutional action
• discover many other ways we're inviting the public onto our campus throughout the year