The John Innes Centre (JIC) is an international centre of excellence in plant science, genetics and microbiology. In 2015 Sciencewise supported JIC to run a public dialogue to inform JIC’s strategy for 2017. This particularly focussed on exploring the social, economic and environmental challenges which the JIC Science Strategy 2017-2022 should be aiming to address. It also aimed to inform the development of a new governance framework and initiatives to support and encourage public dialogue in the JIC in future.

The process ran from December 2015 until July 2015 and consisted of two dialogue workshops in Norwich and Birmingham with a total of 32 public participants, alongside online community engagement with 446 public participants. The public dialogue was designed by Ipsos MORI and independently evaluated by PIER Logistics and Gene Row Evaluations.

The findings from the public dialogue informed JIC’s Science Strategy for 2017-22.