In this blog series, we will be featuring our award winners and highly commended recipients from the Faculty’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to PPIE’ awards. The awards showcase inspirational and outstanding commitment to PPIE that has made a positive difference to our community and highlights the amazing events, activities, people and groups from across the Faculty.   

Our latest blog in this series features Erin Pallott, Project Lead of the science communication platform Research Hive. Erin was a winner in the Individual category at the 2025 PPIE Awards. 

Early-career researchers (ECRs) often face barriers to meaningful public engagement due to limited training, few practical opportunities, and uncertainty about how to communicate across disciplines and reach diverse audiences. Recognising this, Erin Pallott took leadership of the Research Hive blog in January 2023 and transformed it into an international project that helps ECRs build public engagement and written communication skills while sharing their research with diverse audiences. 

The blog provides an accessible starting point for ECRs—undergraduates, postgraduate researchers, and post-doctoral research assistants/associates—to begin their public engagement journeys. Erin has used the Research Hive to: 

• Provide an open platform for ECRs to share their research and expertise through accessible and engaging writing and short-form videos. 
• Create a peer-learning community where researchers learn from one another to strengthen science communication, writing and presentation skills. 
• Embed public engagement as a priority for ECRs, encouraging participation and signposting to wider public engagement initiatives. 

Working with contributors across the University and beyond, Erin has also developed training guides and delivered a workshop on the value of engaging science writing, titled “How to Blog to Get Yourself Seen.” A post-workshop feedback survey revealed that all attendees would consider submitting their own content to the Research Hive blog, demonstrating the platform’s success in motivating researchers to engage wider audiences. 

Erin Pallot at FameLab 2025. Photo credit: Still Moving Media.

In just two years, the Research Hive team has grown from six postgraduate researchers in the Faculty to a volunteer team of 20 across four countries. Erin has actively recruited a wider team of writers by promoting opportunities to those who may face barriers, such as language. Survey data from the last 12 months shows that 75% of Hive contributors speak English as an additional language, while 80% are from outside the UK. 

Beyond the Hive, Erin is also a regular participant of FameLab, Pint of Science and I’m A Scientist. She is a highly active scientist and is estimated to have reached over 1,200 school students via the I’m A Scientist platform. 

Additional information: 

• Erin’s talk at FameLab 2025: FameLab UK Final 2025 – Erin Pallott 
• Research Hive writing guide: a breakdown of how to create your own blog 
• How did others do it? — Research Hive guide: an exploration of other writers’ approaches to writing blogs 

To find out more about PPIE: watch our short film, sign up to the monthly Public Engagement Digest, visit the PPIE blog, or contact srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.       

To read more about other PPIE Award winners visit here. 

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