Parallel Sessions V – 5.1: Horizon Talks

Gerard Bros Perez, Policy Officer, European Commission
Broadening STEAM access for all through EU-funded science engagement

The European Commission places great importance on encouraging access to STEAM fields and careers, including by promoting EU-funded researchers and role models that inspire youngsters all over the world to participate in science. Through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the EU’s reference program for doctoral education and postdoctoral training, the Commission is funding several science engagement activities that are contributing to this goal. This talk will explore how these initiatives are making a difference and contributing to reaching specific communities all over Europe.

Marita Müller, University of Technology Brandenburg Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany
Science Communication in the Periphery

Science Communication in the Periphery Brandenburg is currently experiencing a second disruptive movement after the changes in 1989. In this time of transformation the Science Ministry is focusing on sci comm as a means for dialogue and participation with the civil society. For this purpose, Brandenburg has set up seven offices in smaller cities which is where a great deal of sci comms formats are now taking place. This approach raises some questions: Will sci comms formats help us get in touch with civil society? Is this an appropriate method for getting people involved and engaged? And how can we measure it?

I also would like to collect information whether there are similar approaches. For this purpose I would like to share a google document. Any participants can contribute to the document, adding examples according to certain criteria such as: Who is the author, what is its goal? How does it work? What is the investment in manpower and money? Is impact being measured, and how?

Geoff Crane, Questacon – the National Science and Technology Centre, Australia
National Science Week: Community led science engagement in Australia

How do you get an entire continent to celebrate science for one week? Evolving for over 25 years, National Science Week is Australia’s annual celebration of all things science. It’s a chance to see science, talk science and do science. Recent innovations have included the introduction of annual themed event holder guides to encourage new audiences, new event holders and new venues. An annual online citizen science project is conducted by ABC Science, part of the national broadcaster, enabling engagement no matter where people are located. Each year a cohort of prominent researchers and science communicators are recruited as volunteer ambassadors to promote the week in the media. The recent move to online engagement has been embraced, with many events offered in hybrid mode, and the festival’s website has been updated to accommodate that shift.

Jurgita Barynienė, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania:
Towards the sustainable co-creative solutions applying Challenge-based learning approach: Partnership between Universities, industry and communities

Under conditions of uncertainty, the main task for higher education institutions is to answer the question how to equip students with the competencies for life so that they could be active and responsible citizens. Challenge-based learning (CBL) can be seen as a new and transformative learning approach that helps students to develop skills required when solving the challenges of modern society in the context of uncertainty. At the same time, CBL brings together students, teachers, representatives from industry and public institutions as well as communities to solve real life problems together and to create a solution that is environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable to achieve individual and common wellbeing.

Liselotte Englund, Karlstad University, Sweden:
Growing into communicative and creative researchers: Swedish doctoral course helped 300 PhD students find their tone and voice in reaching out.

Educating future researchers in science communication is an important task for a university, and also of great societal relevance. At Karlstad University, Sweden, doctoral students have completed a postgraduate course, titled “Communicating science” for three decades. The course has centred on elements such as popular science writing, oral presentation techniques and media training. The extensive course evaluation survey has, among other things, given feedback on whether the course made the doctoral student better equipped to communicate research outside their own scientific field. This presentation reports on a study of evaluations submitted during a fifteen-year period by a total of 335 doctoral students in the fields of health, natural sciences, technology, humanities, and social sciences. The results indicate that the doctoral course has been a successful model, contributing to the growth of the doctoral students, scientifically as well as communicatively.