Over the course of 2022-23, CaSE worked with the research agency Public First to carry out a major study of public attitudes to R&D. This comprised:
- Four nationally-representative surveys, polling a total of 18,000 people between May 2022 and October 2023, anchored by a landmark survey of 8,000 people in July 2022
- Fourteen focus groups with people from across the UK, held in May and December 2022
This page allows you to explore this open access data in detail.
- First, we consider the different public audiences, exploring current levels of knowledge and awareness of R&D, perceptions of the benefits of R&D and attitudes to investment in R&D.
- We then consider how to engage different audiences; we ask what opportunities people have to engage with R&D and their appetite to hear more.
- We explore the fundamentals of any successful and targeted campaign: choosing the right terminology, the right messages and the right messengers; understanding what issues matter to people; and what visual concepts are most appealing.
- Finally, we explore how to divide up our audiences in different ways through a segmentation analysis.
Explore the key findings from our 2022-23 study
Our February 2023 Trends report highlights the eight key trends we see in our data. Read the Trends report
Our briefings focuses on specific R&D actors, topics and public audiences. Read our Briefings
Understanding public audiences
Where is the R&D sector starting from with public opinion? Explore current knowledge of R&D, its benefits and attitudes towards investing public money into it.
Knowledge of R&D
How much do people know about R&D?
Benefits of R&D
What do people think are the benefits of R&D?
Investing in R&D
Do people think we should invest in R&D?
Engaging with public audiences
How can R&D advocates best convey their message? Explore how language, messengers and issues influence how different audiences respond to R&D messages.
Opportunities to Engage
What opportunities do people have to engage with R&D and do they want more?
Terminology
What is the best way to talk to the public about R&D?
Messages and Messaging
What does and doesn’t resonate with the public when talking about R&D?
Messengers
Who do the public want to hear from about R&D, and why?
Issues
What issues do the public care about – and do they think R&D can help?
Visual Concepts
Which visuals are most successful with different audiences?
Segmenting our Audience
How can we use the attitudes that people share to better understand our audiences?
Data and Methodology
We want to share the data we’re collecting and how we’re using it. Explore our methods and download the data tables
Methodology
Details of the quantitative and qualitative methods used to produce our public opinion data.
Download the Data
Our data is open-source, download the data tables here.
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