Dear all
I agree that current schemes and grants can sometimes feel inaccessible to
those who are keen to get engaged in but are new to science communication.
As has been mentioned many times before, scientists at post-graduate level
are often given little training or support in communicating their research
more widely.
In addition, many of the public engagement projects run and/or funded by the
research councils, BA, Wellcome trust have difficulties in getting the
right kind of speakers for their events.
Maybe the initiatives Jonathan is looking for should happen at a university
level where funding is given directly to departments to train and encourage
working scientists to get involved in explaining their research areas more
widely. Stanford university and University of Perth have run some successful
projects on this. Possibly some funding in public engagement could go
directly in supporting or driving such initiatives. In the long term, even
those scientists who do not wish to engage directly with science
communication events can gain some benefit from understanding more the
relationships between science, media, policy and the public.
I know this has come up before in sci comm conferences before but I thought
it was worth reiterating for those who have not been involved in those
discussions.
Thanks
Barbara Keating
Communications and Projects Officer
97-99 Dean Street
London W1D 3TE
UK
Ph: +44 (0)20 7292 9916
Fax: +44 (0) 7292 9929
www.scidev.net
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 16 November 2004 10:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Awards and encouragement
Fyi - posting ages ago that I was talking about
Dear All,
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Tedds [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 May 2004 11:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Awards and encouragement
Hello
Is it just me or do many of the current funding and award schemes as
typically posted on psci-com, for example, reward those that have
*already* significantly distinguished themselves rather than encouraging the
vast majority of practising scientists and communicators who would wish to?
I recognise that in reality it becomes a difficult job to decide who should
and shouldn't receive such funds/awards without some distinguishing
mechanism and rewarding success in this regard is in itself desirable! But
when you see recipients of e.g. NESTA dreamtime awards who already have
science/art books in print at time of application and so forth it can seem
rather daunting.
So perhaps an annual open forum could be created where anyone can come for a
day and present their raw ideas for innovative science communication to a
panel and then be invited back if warranting further interest and hence a
further investment of time and effort on behalf of the applicant? This then
does not involve an excessive time investment in the initial stages.
Eventually a limited number of applicants might be offered financial
assistance/secondment and advice having sufficiently convinced the judges.
By the way, I apologise if such a forum already exists!
I think the problem for many practising scientists is that the usual
combination of work and family responsibilities make it extremely difficult
to put into action many of the good ideas we might have. You feel you might
jeopardise your current career (where there is always that pressure to do
your job well and write up and publish ever more while on short term
contracts) if you devote the significant effort required to invest in
serious science writing. On the other hand just a small amount of
encouragement from your peers might make all the difference. Perhaps the
best will always find a way but I believe we can definitely encourage more
to try?
Cheers,
Jonathan
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Jonathan Tedds, Tel: +44 (0)116 252 3502
XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (XID), Fax: +44 (0)116 252 3311
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Leicester, Email: [log in to unmask]
Leicester LE1 7RH, UK http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk/~jat
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