Laggan, Fogg-Rogers and Sardo reposition public engagement from communication technique to a learned relational competence. Their study demonstrates that meaningful co-production requires scientists and policymakers themselves to acquire capacities for deliberation, reflection, power sharing and situated interaction rather than simply inviting publics into pre-structured processes. A longitudinal training programme based on learning-by-doing, critical reflection and social support becomes the methodological instrument through which changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour can be observed. The paper is particularly useful because it treats institutional resistance, role suitability, enjoyment, resources and fears of losing authority as material components of participatory governance rather than peripheral psychological variables. Public engagement therefore appears as a socio-technical practice whose success depends on the configuration of people, organisational incentives, time and political backing. The work bridges science communication, deliberative governance and transdisciplinary research by showing that democratic knowledge production depends on infrastructures of competence: participation must be designed, supported and continuously learned on every side of the boundary.