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

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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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