FECYT has has just published the NEWSERA Policy briefs, developed to identify challenges that these initiatives face when reaching out to different stakeholders, and to pinpoint innovative ideas to overcome difficulties and adapt to a changing science communication environment.
The relationship between science and society is evolving. People are more and more involved in science as volunteers in citizen science projects, participatory initiatives in which everyone can take an active part in scientific research. These activities make citizens protagonists in knowledge creation, in a collaborative effort with scientists, research institutions and local communities, in matters of interest for society. At the same time, public and private institutions aim to be closer to citizens in order to increase their legitimacy and good governance; evidence-based decisions are also gaining momentum in democratic societies.
For example, while citizen science projects are based on the engagement of the general public, often they struggle to reach groups outside the "usual suspects", i.e. science enthusiasts, or to involve participants for longer periods of time.
To be more effective in reaching potential volunteers and to increase the projects’ impacts on the public, NEWSERA’s advice is to foster public engagement to promote open knowledge and involve people within the research process, especially already-established local communities. Moreover, involving citizens in each step of the scientific research allows to form an alliance between scientists and citizens that is beneficial for both. A network of well-informed citizens can also be a valid ally in fighting fake news on scientific issues through the promotion of critical thinking.
Other groups, such as academic scientists, policy makers and entrepreneurs, can be even harder to reach but equally precious for citizen science initiatives. Involving researchers can amplify a project’s reach among research institutions and help to promote open science. And teaming up with policy makers and industries can turn citizen science into a catalyst of innovation, but might also be a way to aim for openness and accountability in the public and private sector.
Science and data journalists are an underestimated stakeholder as well: the data gathered or produced by citizen scientists can be a great source for news stories, especially local ones. Being aware of the media environment can also help to spread the word about projects, increasing their impacts and raising public awareness.
The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) is involved in multiple aspects of the project, with special responsibility for improving the communication of citizen science projects for Policy Makers.
Download the NEWSERA Policy brief:
English.Italian. Portuguese.Spanish.
About NEWSERANEWSERA is a EU project funded in the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement n. 873125.

The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) has closed and evaluated the mentoring  programme “FEminist Leadership In SciencE - FELISE”. FELISE has been developed within the European project o GEARING-Roles and it has put 35 young women researchers in touch with 35 senior women researchers from Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Portugal, United Kingdom and Turkey. 
Recently, FECYT launched the end of programme satisfaction survey to FELISE participants. 77% of the mentees and 66% of mentors replied and these are some of the main results:
Satisfaction of young women researchers:

• 80% is very or extremely satisfied with FELISE and her mentor
• 80% plans to stay in touch with her mentor
• 81% would recommend a FELISE-like programme to their peers and 93% believe these programmes should be implemented widely in research institutions.

Satisfaction of mentors and sponsors:

• 65% was very or extremely satisfied with FELISE.
• 90% was very or extremely satisfied with her mentee
• 96% would recommend the programme to their peers and believe this kind of programmes should be implemented widely in research institutions

Besides, these are some of the comments gathered fom participants:
“The program for me was a success: I managed to meet not just professionals from my institution but to connect with professionals around the world. The workshops and meetings were excellent and provided a different perspective”
“At my institution, mentors and mentees had a collective meeting and we created a WhatsApp group which have improved communication on gender-related topics and have enhanced our professional relations among women in the institution”
“I believe that the mentoring programe contributed to change the narrative about gender inequalities in the organization. It was important to counterbalance the dominant discourse on meritocracy with a growing individual awareness of gender inequalities as a structural issue. In addition it was also a good opportunity for me as a mentor to reflect on what the ideal academic should be and also encourage me to create opportunities to listen to the perspectives of my PhD students, young researchers, colleagues, etc”.
During eight months between 2020 and 2021, young women researchers have met with a mentor woman with a feminist perspective at her institution and, most of them, have also been paired with a “sponsor” from another institution and coming from the same academic discipline. Mentees have met virtually with their mentors and sponsors to jointly reflect about different issues related with gender equality in research such as policies and institutional norms, narratives around excellence in research, integration of gender in education and research and the impact of COVID 19 in the development of women in science, among others.
Besides, FELISE has included two training sessions about career development and three keynote of women in science in which they have reflected about their careers with mentors and mentees.  
GEARING-Roles has published a handbook about FELISE under CC-by 4.0 licence to foster its reuse.
About GEARING ROLESGEARING-Roles aims at implementing six gender equalit plans in 6 European institutions. The project has received funding from Horizon 2020 under grant agreement n 824536. It started on 1st January 2019 and will run for 4 years.

This second workshop, held in the framework of DISCOVERY LEARNING project, has promoted the training of a group of PhD students from Spanish and Norwegian universities, giving advice on the design and building of projects from scratch. The workshop was again led by the project coordinator, Eva García, consultant of RTDI with more than 20 years of experience in the field.
During this session the participants were able to learn in depth about relevant concepts and tools for the construction of R&I projects and also they had to chance to participate in an interactive part, focused on the students testing the knowledge learned through the resolution of practical cases. The main goal of this webinar was to train students in different transferrable skills, such as synthesis, strategic communication and creativity among others, enabling them to incorporate this knowledge into their day-to-day tasks and giving resources to go deeper in case they were interested on the issue.
Following the success of these first webinars, in the coming weeks DISCOVERY LEARNING will launch an online training offer with multiple sessions on transferrable skills aimed at European early stage researches.
For more information, follow Discovery Learning in @DiscoveryLearn4 and https://discoverylearning.eu/

FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology - presented today at the headquarters of the National Museum of Science and Technology, MUNCYT, IN Alcobendas, the results of the third Social Perception Survey of scientific aspects of the COVID-19 in a debate moderated by Pampa García Molina, Editor-in-Chief of the SINC Agency, in which Raquel Yotti, Director of the Carlos III Health Institute of Madrid, Josep Lobera, Professor of Sociology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and scientific director of the Social Perception Survey on the scientific aspects of COVID-19 and Pablo Simón, Professor of Political Science at the Carlos III University of Madrid, took part.
The results of this third survey correspond to interviews conducted by telephone with 2,100 individuals from 3 to 21 May 2021 and measures the evolution of vaccine reluctance and its associated social factors. The study with the results of this third survey was also presented during the event and is available on the FECYT website. The first survey was conducted between 25 June and 15 July 2020 and the second between 4 and 22 January 2021. With the results obtained from both, the report Evolución de la percepción social de aspectos científicos de la COVID-19 (Evolution of Social Perception of Scientific Aspects of COVID-19) was produced.
This series of surveys has been conducted for the FECYT by Professor Josep Lobera (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) with the collaboration of researcher Pablo Cabrera (Universidad de Salamanca).
Attitudes towards vaccinationResults of the study show that the uptake of covid-19 vaccines consolidates the improvement initiated in January 2021. In July 2020, only one third of the population (32%) expressed with full confidence their intention to be vaccinated as soon as a vaccine was offered by health authorities. In January, that proportion increased to 58% and, in May, it has reached 83% (adding those already vaccinated and those fully confident of doing so).
The main factors associated with reluctance to vaccinate are the belief that vaccines are unsafe, complacency (the perception that when the majority are vaccinated, vaccination is no longer necessary), individualistic values (measured as disengagement from "I would accept the coronavirus vaccine if it helps protect my elders") and the conspiracy mentality around covid-19.
Compliance with COVID-19 preventive measuresResults show a certain relaxation in compliance with prevention measures, particularly in maintaining social distance. In May, only a third of the population (32%) said that they had strictly avoided social contacts in the last month, twenty points less than in January.
On the other hand, only half of the population (49%) say that they have avoided or have been able to strictly avoid being in enclosed spaces with other people outside their living environment. The main factors associated with non-compliance with prevention measures are:

1. Non-compliance with the measures by their immediate social environment.
2. Lack of trust in health institutions.
3. Having a low level of education.
4. Being male.

The quadratic effect of educational level points to a possible effect of living/working conditions on the maintenance of prevention norms. On the other hand, conspiracy mentality adds to the list of factors associated with mask use.
COVID-19 conspiracy theoriesThere is a significant percentage of people who believe in some conspiracy theories. One in four Spaniards (25%) strongly believe that there are secret organisations that strongly influence political decisions and only 17% strongly believe the opposite. Almost a third of the Spanish population (31%) believe that face masks are bad for their health and only 16% firmly believe that they are not. Nearly 8% strongly believe that vaccinating children is harmful, and this fact is hidden, while 35% strongly believe that this is not the case.
58% of the population declare they have seen or heard messages, through one or more media, encouraging people not to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Twenty-seven per cent say they have heard or seen them on television, while 34% say these messages have come to them via a social network.
The main factors associated with having conspiratorial beliefs about covid-19 are:

1. A previous conspiratorial mindset about vaccines.
2. Distrust of political institutions.
3. Avoidance of mask use.
4. Experiencing social difficulties associated with covid-19 containment measures.
5. Being female.
6. Having a low level of education.

 
Technical data sheet of the survey:Universe: individuals aged 18 and over resident in Spain for 5 or more years.Sample size: 2,100 interviews. Sampling: random selection of the interviewee with a sample stratified by the intersection habitat / autonomous community and distributed proportionally to the total of the region.Method of data collection: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) using a structured and pre-coded questionnaire. The interviews were carried out in 75% of the cases by means of the interviewees' landline telephones and in the remaining 25% by means of their mobile telephones for people who did not have a landline telephone.Data collection: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) using a structured, pre-coded questionnaire. The interviews were carried out in 75% of the cases through the landline phones of the interviewees and in the remaining 25% through their mobile phones for people who did not have a landline phone. Sampling error: assuming the criteria and principles of simple random sampling, under the assumption of maximum sampling inefficiency due to the non-proportional distribution of the sample, for a confidence level of 95% and in the worst case scenario of maximum indeterminacy (p=q=50%), the margin of error for the total sample can be estimated at +-2.14%. Fieldwork: between 3 and 21 May 2021.
DOCUMENTATION:

• Informe: El factor social de la gestión sanitaria: actitudes hacia la vacunación y cumplimiento de las medidas anti-COVID-19.
• Presentación Percepción social de los aspectos científicos de la COVID-19.
• Cuestionario Primera Ronda (Junio/Julio 2020).
• Cuestionario Segunda Ronda (Enero 2021).
• Cuestionario Tercera Ronda (Mayo 2021).
• Cuestionario Primera Ronda (Inglés).
• Cuestionario Segunda Ronda (Inglés).
• Cuestionario Tercera Ronda (Inglés).
• Microdatos Encuesta Junio/Julio 2020.
• Microdatos Encuesta Enero 2021.
• Microdatos Encuesta Mayo 2021.

The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) has presented this week at the headquarters of the National Science and Technology Museum in Madrid the main results of the 10th Social Perception of Science Survey carried out in 2020. The survey was published June 2, 2021.
The presentation was attended by Pedro Duque, Minister of Science and Innovation, Josep Lobera, Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and scientific co-director of the Survey and the subsequent study, and Rosa Capeáns, Director of the Scientific Culture and Innovation Department of FECYT. Pampa García, Editor-in-Chief of the SINC Agency, moderated a debate in which the results were presented in six blocks: Interest in scientific and technological issues; Image of scientific and technological research in Spain; Science and technology: media; Use of therapies without scientific evidence; Robotisation and artificial intelligence; and Climate change.
Among the survey results, a large majority of the Spanish population believe that more should be invested in science and technology at all levels of public administration and private companies. This demand is higher in relation to the Spanish government, supported by 85 % of the population. Eighty percent believe that regional governments should increase investment in science and technology research, along with 71% who believe that local administrations and private companies should do so.
In terms of interest in science and technology issues, the survey reveals that around one in seven people (14 %) spontaneously express an interest in science and technology issues, a similar proportion to those who express an interest in economy (16 %), education (15 %) and environment (10 %). This is similar to the interest detected in the 2018 survey (16 %).
A spontaneously declared interest in science and technology continues to be higher among men (19 %) than among women (10 %). However, women show a greater interest in topics with a very direct relationship to science and technology, such as medicine and health. Thirty-two percent of women show a spontaneous interest in these issues, compared to 20 % among men. Women were also more interested in issues related to the pandemic (50 %, compared to 43 % of men), a central theme this year and closely linked to the development of scientific evidence.
Use of therapies without scientific evidenceThe survey includes a specific module dedicated to researching the social perception of some aspects of science applied to health. In a previous press release in February, the results concerning attitudes towards vaccination were explained.
On the other hand, one in six Spaniards (17 %) say they trust the beneficial effects of homeopathy, eight percentage points less than two years ago, while 11 % trust reiki (the laying on of hands), five percentage points less than two years ago. This decline seems to be linked to information campaigns on these treatments but also to a general decrease in confidence, which extends to conventional treatments such as vaccination.
Robotisation and artificial intelligenceThe population is divided on the risk-benefit balance of the applications of robotisation and artificial intelligence. Overall, 34 % of the population believe that the benefits of job robotisation outweigh the risks, while 53 % believe that the risks outweigh the benefits and 13 % have no opinion.
Science and technology: mediaTelevision continues to play an important role as a channel for scientific information at all ages. Seventy-two percent of the population say that they obtain information on science and technology-related issues through this medium. Television has played a particularly important role in information related to covid-19: it has been the main source of information on the disease for 65 % of the population, followed by the Internet for 25 %.
The survey has shown in recent editions that the Internet has established itself as a fundamental means of scientific information and communication in Spain. In this edition, 61 % of the population say that they get information about science and technology on the Internet, mainly through social networks and through the digital versions of the general media.
Survey fact sheet:For the 10th Social Perception of Science and Technology Survey, 7,953 interviews have been carried out, distributed in each Autonomous Community in Spain. The population studied are people aged 15 and over who have been residents in Spain for 5 years or more.
The information collection work took place from 14 July to 19 October 2020 (no fieldwork was carried out in the month of August). The sampling error for the sample as a whole is ±1.12 percentage points for a 95 % confidence level.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:Social perception of science and technology survey questionnaire 2020 (in English).Statistical tables in Excel (in Spanish).Complete report (in Spanish).Main results (in Spanish).Press kit (in Spanish).