Dr Michael Pocock has been appointed a member of the RCUK Public Engagement with Research Advisory Panel. His appointment is "in the light of [his] knowledge and reputation" in public engagement.

The Advisory Panel over-sees the RCUK Public Engagement with Research team, providing challenge and support. The role of the team is to bring together the Research Councils' activities to raise public awareness and engagement in research and innovation. The advisory panel includes council members of the Research Councils, and representatives from the charity sector, the Royal Society and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Dr Pocock's pioneering citizen science project, Conker Tree Science http://www.ourweboflife.org.uk/, has just started for 2011. Through it anyone can take part in real research on an insect that is damaging our horse-chestnut trees and rapidly spreading across Britain. New for this year is the Conker Tree Science: Leaf Watch mobile phone app (for iPhones http://bit.ly/iphone-leafwatch and Android http://bit.ly/android-leafwatch smart phones) so that people can contribute to ecological research "on the go".