Science Communication Plan of the COST Action LeverAge, CA22120

Frontiers in Marine Science, 2016

Dissemination is now acknowledged as an important component of the research process, in particular for European Union (EU) funded research projects. This article builds on the authors' experience during the EU project DEVOTES (DEVelopment Of innovative Tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good Environmental Status) and aims to assist other scientists to develop a successful dissemination strategy to communicate project achievements. We provide a critical review of the different tools used for outreach to our target audiences, from the academia to the policy makers, and the general public, and try to assess their impact. An effective dissemination strategy and plan should have a clear objective, be designed before the start of the project, identify the target groups and define the methods or tools to be used according to target groups and objectives. The DEVOTES dissemination strategy included two complementary approaches of communication with stakeholders: (i) traditional (e.g., peer reviewed publications, stakeholders workshops, and participation in scientific conferences), and (ii) new (e.g., social networks, smartphone applications) media tools. For each dissemination approach, we defined production targets (e.g., number of articles to be published, individual visitors on the website, etc.) to be achieved by the end of the project, and impact measurements (e.g., citation indices for peer reviewed articles) to monitor the successful implementation of DEVOTES Dissemination. This allowed us to identify which tools had been more (e.g., website) or less useful and relevant (e.g., Facebook) during the project. We conclude that impact measurements cannot be easily identified for all dissemination actions. However, for those that were possible, the DEVOTES dissemination targets were successfully achieved. Overall, the use of the tools and activities outlined in this article, combined with the constant evaluation of the dissemination goals throughout the project duration and the assessment of the effectiveness of the different tools, is essential for the achievement of an effective and timely communication of research results.

The current transition of the science and research system results predominantly from a bottom-up process driven by the increasing number of researchers operating in a globally networked digital system and by the increasing societal demand to address the Grand Challenges of our times. The key-stakeholders (universities, research funders, libraries, researchers, publishers, businesses) find themselves in various stages of responding or adapting to the evolving situation. For example, universities are considering new ways to evaluate researchers’ careers and requiring new types of research skills from researchers. The impact of research is of growing importance to research funding organisations. Publishers are active as they are moving towards models of Open Access to publications and research data. New players emerge with regard to determining the impact of research. This background paper to an online consultation-see link below) makes an attempt to identify drivers of, oppertunities ...

Journal of Science Communication

This special issue of JCOM features six commentary articles from the research stream of the Australian Science Communicators conference, held in February 2020. These opportunistic assessments and deliberate analyses explore important themes of trust, engagement, and communication strategy across a diverse range of scientific contexts. Together, they demonstrate the importance of opportunities to come together and share the research that underpins our practice. The conference and these commentaries enable us to engage in professional development during these exceptional times when successful evidence-based science communication is of critical significance.

Artery Research, 2020

network which will refine, harmonize and promote the use of vascular ageing measures, in order to improve clinical practice and to reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases globally. VascAgeNet will "refine" already existing as well as novel, easyto-use technologies for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and monitoring of vascular ageing; "harmonize" knowledge and data to complete clinical validation of the most established surrogate endpoints, including head-to-head comparisons of different techniques and identify gaps and; "promote" a vascular ageing culture and propagate the use of technologies and preventative strategies. To achieve these ambitious goals, VascAgeNet will bring science and industry together to allow for a knowledge transfer for better technology in cardiovascular research and to translate research from bench to bedside. The work plan is especially designed for a close collaboration between all disciplines and players. The content-related Working Groups (WGs) will focus on physiological and technical background to refine the understanding on mechanisms of vascular ageing and to reach consensus of the application of models for the assessment of vascular ageing (WG2); technological aspects leading to standardization and head-to-head comparison of existing techniques and to validation of these (WG3) and; harmonization of existing data and research studies to form the foundations for large, interventional studies (WG4). WG2-4 will be accompanied by two capacity-building working groups (WG1 and WG5). For details, see Climie et al. [7].

2014

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Draft of innovation and research roadmap Mari Sepponen, Matti Hannus, Kalevi Piira, Andrea Cavallaro, Raúl García Castro, Bruno Fies, Thanasis Tryferidis, Kleopatra Zoi Tsagkari, Jérôme Euzenat, Florian Judex, et al.

Journal of scientific temper, 2019

Due importance is not accorded by scientists to public outreach activities, probably due to their busy research and administrative schedule. However, even if they want to devote their time they cannot do it in a sustained manner because of “(over) specialization”. Creative science communication is hindered by alleged ‘egoist’ feeling that it is an act of “copying” and “over-simplification” making the purists cringe to the core. However, it must be borne in mind that all current science is combinatorial. It derives from a diverse set of disciplines and research that has already been done by generations. It’s a networked knowledge that needs to be effectively communicated to the masses by combining the disparate pieces of inspiration, knowledge, skill and talent that are accumulated over the lifetime. These need to be stitched together or recombined into new creations for easy understanding and consumption of the common people. Science communicators need to cross-pollinate to create and evolve new ideas. Science communication to the common people needs an assortment of techniques that can appeal to the “interested” and “non-interested” participants as well. Both these constituents are an important segment, hence efforts should be made to make science communication a participatory event rather than a unidirectional flow of information. The participatory model should strive at creating an ambience of reflection and rumination, on the ideas that are floating around, so that the information that is being discussed can seep into the psyche of interested as well as un-interested participants. Hence, the effective communication of a scientific idea also rests on the shoulders of the participant, and not just on the communicator. This will induce the communicator to explore new, innovative and effective ways to reach the audience. The new integrated social media platform can be harnessed since it provides an opportunity to effectively engage with a wide spectrum of common people comprising students, teachers, academicians, aspiring scientists and technologists, not just locally but globally. This approach will encourage wide participation and greater returns on time invested. It will also give quantifiable metrics on their impact. KEYWORD: Science communication, Outreach programmes, Social media

2009

Paper for 'Users as Innovators' stream of COST 298 The Good the Bad and the Challenging: the user and the future of information and communication, Copenhagen

EMBnet.journal, 2012

EWOP in Practice, 2015

Effective communication-the WorkLab topic Effective communication is one of the key success factors within any organization. Every company member spends most of their time communicating; regardless of their position within company hierarchy. The need to improve communication has increased over recent years because communication plays such a critical role in so many ways; such as: product or service technology developments; customer relationships; innovation and change management; marketing and sales; and personnel management. In fact, communication is active in virtually every facet of business operations. Moreover, the constant development of communication technologies increases information flow and intensiveness as well as opening new communication possibilities. In this context, on the road towards increased efficiency and effectiveness, organizations continuously handle internal communications with the joint aim of improvement and excellence. It is for these reasons that the 3 rd EAWOP WorkLab focused on ways to overcome communication challenges at work.