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Parallel Sessions IV – 4.1: Horizon Talks
May 3, 2023 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Public engagement through qualitative survey: the case of DNA data storage technology
Public dialogue and engagement are being increasingly recognized as important in the development of new technologies because they help to create more engaged, inclusive, and trustworthy relationships between institutions, scientists, and the wider public. Also, public attitudes to novel technologies are one of the key factors determining the success of new products and applications.
A small-scale qualitative online survey was conducted to engage with the publics and to assess views on DNA data storage technology, which is currently in development. This early engagement survey revealed very low awareness of this developing technology, whilst at the same time, participants showed interest and asked questions relating to social and economic implications. The findings recommend greater interdisciplinary collaborations between social scientists and novel technology developers and the use of qualitative surveys in the assessment of public attitudes.
Claire Riordan, CÚRAM, SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices, Ireland
Scientists as Advocates of Science – Why, when and how?
This session will explore the role of individual scientists in advocating for science with policymakers, and how we, as science communicators, can support our research communities to bridge the gap between scientists and policymakers. The first part of the session will present the case study of CÚRAM, an Irish Medical Device Research Centre, who developed an innovative, interdisciplinary-oriented Science Advocacy Training initiative within their public engagement programme, and the lessons learned through this process. The second part of the session will be interactive and reflective in nature, providing participants with an opportunity to reflect on and share their perspectives on how science advocacy training could be incorporated into their work, and the unique challenges they may face.
Emma Clarke, University of Malta
JUSTNature and Varcities: Shaping communities for a just, sustainable world
This horizon talk will present two sister projects: JUSTNature and Varcities which are aiming to to establish sustainable models for increasing the health and well-being of citizens exposed to different climatic conditions and challenges and to activate citizens through nature-based solutions for a just low carbon transition based on the principle of the right to ecological space as recently iterated by the European Green Deal. City practices labs (CiPeLs) constitute the backbone of the projects’ activities by delivering community-engaged, co-explored, and co-decided innovation in 6 European city practice labs (CiPeLs) through empowering the place-making capacity of a multitude of actors and through running multiple local stakeholders workshops to bring policy makers, regional bodies, citizens and researchers all together for impactful participatory science engagement activities to address Nature-based solutions (NbS) for the ‘wicked problems’ of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Julia Panzer, Wissenschaft im Dialog, Germany
How can we know what good science communication is? Quality indicators and how they can help communicate better
Lately, there have been increasing discussions not only about science communication in general but also especially about the need for “good” science communication. But that is a very elusive concept – how can we evaluate and measure the quality of science communication? Fortunately, there are indicators that can help to assess the achievement of goals and quality, which often cannot be observed directly. When an activity aims to be interactive, the extent to which participants are actively involved can be considered an indicator and be observed. Accuracy and clarity of a text can serve as indicators of how likely it is that information was successfully transmitted and e.g. a readers’ survey can reveal how clear the text was to them. This talk will give an introduction to the idea and relevance of quality indicators and discuss scicomm-specific ones. Participants will get inspiration for their everyday work and some hands-on ideas for how they can think about quality in a helpful way.