Hi Jenny,
Congratulations on a producing such a comprehensive website.
We have a few suggestions to make too.
In the "Training" section you mention many courses, degrees or
specialized fellowships. What you could also add is a section on one- or
two-day training courses that are designed to give initial training in
science communication to researchers.
For example, the RCUK Science in Society Unit funds two schemes which
provide this kind of training to their researchers:
-Researchers in Residence offers the opportunity to researchers to use
their expertise and develop their communication skills by going into a
post-primary school or college and helping create quality science
experiences for the pupils. All RinRs attend a one-day training course
in how to communicate their research to non-specialists.
- Perspectives (referred to elsewhere on your site). Part of this
scheme is an one-day workshop where researchers are introduced into the
world of science communication. However, when you refer to
"Perspectives" on the site it may be worth mentioning that it is
currently only open to Research Council-funded researchers.
The individual Research Councils also fund their own courses for their
researchers. Here is a selection:
Meet the Scientist (2 days, Open to EPSRC-funded
researchers)http://www.ecsite-uk.net/projects/dialogue.html
Communicating Science to the Public (2 days, open to NERC-funded
researchers) http://www.nerc.ac.uk/insight/support/commstrainad.asp
Media Training for New Researchers (1 day, open to ESRC-funded
researchers)
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Support/Communications%5FToolkit/media%5Frelations/media%5Ftraining/
In the "Outreach" section you could add Researchers in Residence, as
the scheme connects researchers and schools and brings contemporary
science into the classrooms.
One final suggestion: you could add an "Evaluation" section. This could
include examples of best practice and guidelines (including our own,
which you can download from
www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/evaluationguide_print.pdf ). It would be
valuable for people who are organising public engagement events.
I hope that some of our suggestions help,
Good luck with the website
Aliki
Aliki Giannakopoulou
Portfolio Support
Research Councils UK
Science in Society Unit
Polaris House,North Star Avenue
Tel: 01793 442825
Fax. 01793 413128
Web. www.rcuk.ac.uk/sis
Swindon
SN2 1ET
Tel: +44 (0) 1793 442825
>>> [log in to unmask] 02/03/2006 15:31:29 >>>
Hello everyone,
The British Council has asked us at SPRU to create a guide to highlight
UK
excellence in science communication. It differs from other guides in
that it
is meant to highlight the best of what is happening in the UK. We'd
love to
have your views on an early draft.
At the moment, we believe the guide is a useful one. But it is still
very
much work-in-progress, and we need to know more about what you would
like to
find on a resource such as this.
The website highlights:
* some of the UK academic departments where science communication
research
is done
* a list of courses in science communication, with links to their
web
pages
* information about some of the mentoring and fellowship
opportunities in
science communication
* details of some of the science weeks and festivals that take place
during the year
* sources of funding for science communication
and other science-communication related events and resources.
Our task now is to make the resource more useful to international
science
communicators. We would like to highlight the UK resources,
departments,
journals, events and courses that you rate highly. We would be very
grateful
if you could tell us what you think of the resource. Perhaps you would
like
to add your department to the list? Or maybe you are aware of another
science communication journal to our list of academic publications?
If you would like to suggest changes to current text (perhaps you would
like
a different sentence describing the activities of your own department?)
then
please do get in touch.
The draft website is available on a temporary hosting at
http://www.jennygristock.com/scicom
Past drafts of the website focused heavily on the history of science
communication. We have since switched focus, so this context is
currently
absent. To remedy this, we are currently working on some concise text
to
provide some background, which can then lead into more information
about the
dialogue activities of various kinds that are taking place today.
The guide is being created by SPRU for British Council Science in
Manchester.
With best wishes,
Jenny Gristock
SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QE
Telephone 01273 876711
Website www.sussex.ac.uk/spru
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