The OU is one of eight universities funded by the UK Research Councils to embed public engagement within the research culture of their university. Engaged research refers to the ways research can be shared with individuals and groups, beyond the immediate research community and for mutual benefit, change and/or effect. As a part of this national initiative, within the OU’s ‘Engaging Research’ project (April 2012 to March 2015), we’re exploring how OU researchers are using online tools to support their research communication and public engagement activities. We’re also working with support and service units across the university to review the institutional support for online engagement with research. In this seminar we’ll provide an overview of this work to date. We’ll discuss the findings of surveys and interviews with OU researchers concerning their perceptions of public engagement and how they use online tools within their engaged research practices. We’ll also present an overview of the tools available, and discuss the level of institutional support, responsibility and control regarding online research engagement and communication. Our overarching aim is to raise the profile of engaged research within the OU, and develop institutional support for a necessarily diverse and emerging compendium of effective practices. This seminar will provide an opportunity for you to find out more about this work and contribute to the direction it takes.