Irony of ivory

Let's say, polls are in, and we didn't make it into government.
There was a deadline when registrations for short courses at the SETAC Basel 2014 conference were counted, and afterwards decisions had to be made for each course whether its worth it to run.
Three courses were offered on communication topics. I really liked reading that. But as large the choices as little was the interest. Our course drew 4 registrations...the others drew one each. As a consequence, all three courses were cancelled.
What a pity! I liked our proposal, for sure, but I would also have loved to attend the other two courses. Simon Pardoe of PublicSpace UK offered "Disseminating publicly-funded science and technology research: challenges, issues and strategies". Most environmental scientists should have been interested. From what I experienced being active for science communication the last years I doubt that many colleagues have sufficient knowledge about this - if any. The SETAC Europe Student Advisory Council (SAC) in person of current acting chair Dragan Jevtic wanted to contribute "Social and Professional Networking Tools for Science Communication". A similar course as a noon time seminar at the SETAC North America 2013 conference in Nashville was a huge success.
So what went wrong? As a "nice piece of irony", to quote Roel Evens of SETAC Europe, we seem to have failed to communicate: the importance of proper communication of scientific findings, the necessity to leave the comfort of our ivory tower, and the fact of 3 courses on science communication available at SETAC Basel. This was for us to learn. We will do better next time.

Here's to identification!

It took me quite a long time to come up with a satisfying logo for the research group."Effect-related Ecotoxicology" doesn't work well as an acronym. Adding "work group" or "reasearch group" or even "team" as initials also just sounded silly. Well, so the best way out is to avoid using an acronym for the logo. The disadvantage of this strategy is that a catchy group acronym aids in identfication of the members with their research ("Hi, I'm Thomas of the REFEC team!"). But a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. So here's what I have in hand now. Maybe I find something better in the bushes later on.

1st Biological AdVent in-house exhibiton

On 12 December 2013 we opened doors for the 1st Biological Advent in-house exhibition in the framework of the academia-industry cooperation Students Lab "Fascinating Environment".

This event allowed all of our industry partners to present not only their contributions to the lab's equipment but also other products from their portfolio. The audience consisted of colleagues from other biological institutes as well as many interested students.

We could welcome nearly all of our partners: Nikon Instruments, Tecan, Hettich, Büchi, Memmert, Prior Scientific, Integra Biosciences, Promega, BFI Optilas, Mettler Toledo. All representants were pleased with how the exhibition went and showed interest to repeat it.

In the past we had already one "Industry Day 2010", but the following years we found no capacities to organise a second event. With the date fixed to the time before Christmas we want to make this exhibition an annual activity. Next round will also have useful lectures by our partners, e.g., on the very basics of microscopy, weighing practice, functioning of a monochromator and the like.

As a sideeffect, I had another opportunity to create a logo.

On the proper dissemination of findings

I seem to have gained already bit of a reputation as someone who cares about science communication, and also sports sort of expertise or at least can bring in a network that helps. At least, SETAC Europe's education committee learned enough about my activities to ask me to organise "a short course on communication tools" at SETAC Europe's annual meeting in Basel.

Needless to say that I agreed after shortly checking back with some colleagues who could give valuable input as instructors. We submitted a proposal "From quality platform and poster presentations to proper dissemination of findings - learn tools, get practice, gain experience" and promised to "help the participants to improve the quality of their platform and poster presentations and train them to adapt their communication of scientific results".

Together with Ulrike Kammann of Thünen Institute Hamburg, I will try to win the particpants for presentation design based on the presentationzen ideas of Garr Reynolds, but adapted to the needs of environmental sciences. Agnieszka Hunka of University of Twente will then teach the course proper poster design, and Katharina Tarnacki of the Institute for Management Cybernetics at RWTH Aachen University will help shaping written texts to catch the different target groups we have. Knowing a whole lot about successful design and writing the participants will then have the opportunity to train their skills with the production of some draft promotional material - aiming at a self-choosen audience.

The course will take place - given at least 10 people register for it - on Sunday 11 May from 8.00 to 17.30.

All along the Ivory Tower

We got our session! At the SETAC Europe Annual meeting 2014 in Basel, Switzerland, we will try to define a good way to leave the Ivory Tower and make environmental science matter to a broader public. The session will run on Wednesday, 14 May 2014, from 10.45 to 12.50.

Though the session became smaller and shorter than hoped and expected, we will hear 6 interesting and challenging talks about tools for science communication, the current state, and experiences already made within research projects - to pinpoint the best practice for a successful dissemination of scientific results.

Beside the platform presentations the session will provide another 6 authors opportunities for presenting and discussing their specific views to the audience in a short talk within the poster corner session during poster social that same day.

Hence, in total we will have 12 different perspectives to listen to, discuss about and learn from. That's a good step forward towards our goal of a comprehensive communication strategy for environmental sciences.

Escape from the Ivory Tower

Back in 2012 at the 6th SETAC World Congress, held in Berlin, Germany, we started our activities on science and risk communication of environmental research with a small session of six platform presentations and a couple of posters. Though largely disregarded by abstract submissions, the session received very well attendance and initially encouraged us to go further with the topic.

We wrote a session brief also for this first effort. As it did not make it into SETAC Globe I post it below in full text - for the sake of completeness of the communication story.


RA08 Escape from the Ivory Tower – Environmental sciences should impact public and policy

Thomas-Benjamin Seiler (RWTH Aachen University), Magnus Engwall (Örebro University), Henner Hollert (RWTH Aachen University)

Communication means to convey meaningful information to create shared understanding. If messages from environmental science are not suitable to produce public endorsement, we remain in the Ivory Tower despite all connections there might be. The session therefore invited colleagues to share their ideas, thoughts and experiences regarding the communication of scientific findings to the public.

It was due to the high temperatures in room ECC 5 high above the poster and exhibition area that everyone could feel an urge to „escape from the ivory tower“. Nevertheless, the session was well attended, with nearly every seat occupied and vivid discussions after each talk. The presentations ranged from individual experience with the pitfalls of press work, over diverse aspects of communication to a successful effort in public relation.

Fabienne Schwab (eawag, Switzerland) shared her experience with a research finding on nanoparticles being largely misunderstood by the media and thus causing major press coverage – but with a completely wrong message. The obstacles she faced were named by Agnieszka Hunka from Roskilde University, Denmark. She presented a study on risk communication based on interviews with stakeholders. A successful example of public communication was presented by Rüdiger Berghahn (Federal Environment Agency, Germany). He brought a movie clip introducing a research facility in Berlin in a manner that can cause common people to just go there and have a look. Talks by Philippe Garrigues (Université de Bordeaux 1, France) and Valentina Castellani (University of Study Milano, Italy) addressed the need for sound communication of decision making in order to raise public acceptance. Either for political decisions made or public awareness of environmental issues, the box of tools for change management introduced by Thomas Hinton from IRSN, France, could help to achieve the goals of public communication.

Communication seems a largely neglected topic in environmental sciences. Annual meetings very rarely provide the possibility to exchange ideas and experiences on the dissemination of scientific findings. This session was intended to start a process to establish science communication as a regular topic at annual meetings. The strong interest and the responses from the audience show that the session met an urgent need.

From this first attempt to explore the mechanisms of public communication in environmental sciences we already learned that emotions play a key role. Whilst scientists are dedicated to sound reasoning and rational thinking, the receiving public care intuitively about their fears and desires. Hence, the translation of scientific language into public understanding is not just a matter of non-technical wording, but requires consideration of the different cultures involved. A strong commitment to a shared vision from either side could overcome such barriers.

Research on communication and communication of research

At SETAC Europe meeting 2014 in Basel, Switzerland, I plan to chair a special session on science and risk communication together with Andrea Rother of University of Cape Town, South Africa, Ragnar Löfstedt of King's College, London, and Henner Hollert of our institute.

The title "Research on communication and communication of research – pinpointing the best practice to improve our outreach" promises both theoretical and practical insights. We also plan to structure the talks according the geographical regions to reveal local differences in communication strategies. Dig deeper into what we have thought about by reading our session proposal.

The session is open for abstracts until 30 November 2013, 23.59 Brussels time. Abstracts can be submitted via the online submission system. All details on abstract submission can be found here.

We are looking forward to a lively session and discussion with good conclusions on how to strengthen public awareness of environmental sciences.