I recently gave an invited talk at ReCon Event in Edinburgh. The conference is all about research communication for early career researchers (ECRs), and is quite publication focused. In a slightly different twist, I was asked to give a talk about science communication, I decided to try and doing something a bit original and throw out some ideas as to what helps and what hinders science communication by ECRs.
My talk was designed to spark a conversation about what universities and related organisations are doing which is helpful to ECRs undertaking science communication, and what can be done better in future. I cover many topics in my quick talk including:
Types of ECR science communicators
Sciencecommunication Training
Science communication in Schools
Science communication competition
Research conferences and science communication
RCUK science grant 'Impact Plans'
Science communication fellowships
You can find all the details in the embedded video and PowerPoint presentation below.
I would love to hear what other people think would be helpful for science communication by ECRs. Feel free to leave a comment below with your ideas.
Disclaimer: because this is only minute talk, lots of stuff was skipped. The elephant in the room is of course the issues of diversity and representation in research and academia, which are vitally important in science communication because science communicators are the publicly visible scientists out there.
On a related note Dr Becky Douglas (@BeckyDouglas) gave a great talk on science communication, and why people should make an effort to engage with hard to reach audiences. Becky's talk was also filmed and is embedded below. Please watch her talk: it is a though provoking and engaging 15 minutes for those interested in science communication.
Thanks again to the organizers of ReCon for inviting me to talk, and thanks to the AV team for filming the talks. I had a very good time and I would recommend attending ReCon in future years!