• strengthen science citizenship
• celebrate science and scientists
• promote evidence-based research

The conference report puts forward the delegates’ suggestions for how these recommendations can be put in place – it also provides context for the recommendations and a series of case studies which illustrate how the findings from the CASC project informed these ideas.

You can download a PDF of the conference report here. The full CASC project report will be published in due course.

For more information on the policy recommendations please see these posts reporting on the discussions which took place at the conference.

She insisted that scientists should be encouraged to engage with the public, but need training to do so.

She also maintained that the CASC network had been a valuable way to experiment and should be continued as a way to meet and exchange ideas and explore the differences between groups.

Beatrice was part of Work Package Three which focused on hard-to-reach groups.

You may have to click through and view large versions of these photographs as some of the sheets were very full and detailed by the end of the session. The most important thoughts were highlighted by outlining.

Science and the Credit Crisis (large version)

Communicating Science to Adult Non-Scientists (large version)

Teachers and Professional Status (large version)

Ways to Engage Rural Communities (large version)

Formal Evaluation of Non Formal Science Education
A huge amount of detail around this topic, so presented in two parts.

(large version)

(large version)

The group discussing the topic ‘Strengthen science citizenship’ selected four policy recommendations to promote and be included in the Conference Report . These were:

• Promote science through partnerships between scientists and coporations
• Invest in science educators and communicators
• Develop a cohesive fiscal framework across the EU to support/enhance science
• Strengthen links between science professionals and the media

Some more detail around these recommendations were added to posters. Here are some of the suggestions:

Promote science through partnerships between scientists and corporations

• Design labs so that scientists can meet the public
• Excursions to factories
• Long-term project between scientists, politicians, companies, schools, science centres
• Project-based learning (real life)
• Regulate the responsibility of the media

Invest in science educators and communicators

• Make it compulsory to allocate x% of scientific research budgets to invest in communicators and educators
• Complimentary science courses for teachers

Develop a cohesive fiscal framework across the EU to support/enhance science

• Recognise challenges of science communication in remote/rural areas of Europe
• Align structural funding mechanisms
• Better target existing mechanisms
• Increase proportion of income tax used to support scince

Strengthen links between science professionals and the media

• Organise training for journalists and scientists together
• General debates on science issues
• Film festivals
• Involve scriptwriters with scientists
• Create tools to infuse science in mainstream culture

The initial list of policy recommendations discussed by the group included:

• Hold referenda on certain (controversial?) science themes to increase interest (already happens in some countries?)
• Ensure science is approached from an issue- or project-base rather than subject-based to ensure inter-disciplinary
• Strengthen links between science professionals and the media (table two agree with this)
• Promote adult informal but structured education and engagement
• Ensure balanced science standpoints are made available to society, for example through supporting NGOs?
• Encourage production of fiction (novels, movies, tv) about controversial science issues
• Invest in scientists as communicators or in science communicators (or both)
• Organise open citizens debate between scientists and media
• Essential for EU to have specific science and society program
• Improve the professional status for teachers
• Educate teachers in science
• Redirect a proportion of personal tax, through local budget to finance science dissemination projects
• Means tested free computer and internet access in primary schools in rural areas
• Work closely with scientists
• Tax exemption for companies financing science dissemination projects (eg. science bus to different village).
• Better educate teachers
• Work closely with scientists and the business world
• Strengthen scientific education through CSR initiatives
• Science promoters – phd students to have compulsory hours to to disseminate science to hard to reach groups/schools
• Design labs in a style that allows science dissemination (i.e glass labs where people can see how scientists work and allows visits from schools etc)

Sten has been involved throughout the 22 months os the Science and Cities programme.  Here he talks about the researchers obligation as set out in Sweden;

One main thing we have in Sweden which is not so common in other countries is that everyone working in research in Sweden has 3 tasks: Do research, educate, and the third one is to tell society what they are doing.

to how useful it would be to have access to small pots of moneyto continue conversations between scientists and the public and the importance of the CASC network.

We need smaller amounts of money which are easier to get.

Following on from the discussion yesterday about ways of promoting evidence based research, the discussion group talked about the ideas further and picked out which ones they felt most strongly about putting forward for recommendation.

After deciding which themes were the most prominent, the group decided on the following four policy areas:

• create common standards
• develop a media agreement
• promote learning
• promote ‘citizen science’

After identifying the four areas above, the group started working to develop ideas for what these recommendations would involve and how they would like to see their ideas be implemented. Below is a list of the main points they discussed.

Create common standards

• European label (kitemark for evidence-based-resarch goods e.g. claims about priobiotic yoghurt)
• Science peer review
• Science education standards
• Academic career progression should include science communication

Develop a media agreement

• Media who sign an agreement get extra funding/accreditation
• Project finance: media + researcher + teacher + communicator
• Include the European Associations of Scientific Journalist

Promote learning

• Teacher training in enquiry-based learning
• Problem based approach
• Promote scientific controversy/curiosity/debate

Promote ‘citizen science’

• Science shops (place where citizens can be involved in research)
• Involvement of citizens in research projects (contribution)
• Involvement of citizens in research projets, topics important for society/everyday life

Science communication is not just a medium, it’s a value and a virtue of itself. It really does matter how we communicate science, not just the subject matter and people need to be paid to do that.  You have to start by engaging people’s imagination.

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