Exploring Research Themes in Public Engagement Within a Natural History Museum: A Modified Delphi Approach

The primacy of the research question in designing studies affords an opportunity for enhancing collaborations between researchers and 'practitioners'. This paper describes the use of a modified Delphi technique to co-generate research questions for a collaborative research study co-funded by a university and a natural history museum. Nine staff from the Science and the Public Engagement groups took part in a process which involved an initial workshop followed by 2 email rounds of ranking potential research themes. The process enabled the museum staff to engage with the relevant literature and to share ideas and priorities for a doctoral research study. As a result, the modified Delphi technique is proposed as a tool for bridging research and practice, building on earlier discussions and research agendas in the field, to identify research themes of importance to practitioners and stakeholders and not only to scholars and academics.