The policy recommendations for celebrating science and scientists
The group which looked at celebrating science and scientists as a theme took the recommendation list they devised yesterday and used that as a basis for developing more concrete recommendations. They discussed the ideas in more detail and eventually came to an agreement on four different proposals which they wanted to put forward. These were:
- fund creation of new science centres and development of existing centres
- promote innovative ways of communicating science
- facilitate training & mobility for science communicators
- train PhD students and researchers in science communication
They then split into smaller sub-groups to develop ideas and reasons behind each of these recommendations, and suggest how they would like each approach to take shape. The thoughts which came out of this session are captured below:
Fund creation of new science centres and development of existing centres
- Science centres have proven to be excellent agents for the social recognition of science & scientists
- They are very good at transferring knowledge from scientists to the public and providing a platform for scientists to meet the public
- They have created strong European and regional networks
- They have successfully explored many ways to bring science to all kinds of publics
Promote innovative ways of communicating science
- Combine science with other subjects – science and art, science and sport
- Targeting hard to reach groups especially in rural areas
- After school and summer school activities using all a city’s facilities to have informal introductions to science
- New ways to mediate science e.g. cartoons, comics, TV channel
- Encouraging the bringing together of scientists and the wide public e.g. events, scientists in places they are not usually seen
Facilitate training & mobility for science communicators
- Providing special training for scientists in science communication
- Possibility for meeting (short-term exchange) or study visits in different countries of the EU
- Media training and meeting with journalists
- Special workshops or training sessions for journalists (partnership and participation with scientists)
- Possibility for publishing scientists in media
- Special university programmes in science communication
Train PhD students and researchers in science communication
- Provision of the necessary skills to young doctorate students in order to bridge the gap between science and society
- Training in dissemination strategies for better science communication
- Encourage young scientists to communicate in unusual places
- Creating a network of universities that adopt science communication
- Funding for partnership between science and media
- Pay universities to adopt schools
- Funding for science competition