On the 30th and 31st of January, two of the researchers that were selected in the open call Open Doors, launched within the framework of the European project Using science for/in diplomacy for addressing global challenges (S4D4C) travelled to London toghether with representatives of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology to continue their training in science diplomacy.
During the first day, they participated in the workshop that the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) that aimed at training researchers how the Parliament and the Governement work, which are their communication channels available to the public, how researchers can identify the impact their research can have in public policies and, finally, how this can be effectively be communicated to politicians and policy-makers.
On the second day, the Open Doors grantees visited the Embassy of Spain in London. The Office for Scientific and Cultural Affairs arranged an agenda with a number of bilateral meetings with different attachés in the Embassy so that grantees could get to know first hand the daily routine of a diplomatic mission and how science is a transversal dimension of this work. Also, they hold a meeting with the President of the Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK) who explained the main objectives of this society.
In the coming months, the Open Doors grantees will visit Brussels and Bonn and their agendas will include visits to research centres, multilateral organisms and Embassies of Spain.
This project has received funding from the research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 of the European Union under grant agreement 770342.
On January 15, the Aula Magna of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) hosted the Communication and Science Outreach meeting, organized by the representative of Spanish Scientists in Denmark (CED), Daniel Gómez Cabello and José A. Morales García, researcher and professor at the UAM and UCM, with the collaboration of the Unit of Scientific Culture of the UAM, the spin-off of scientific illustrations Illusciences and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT).
The day brought together expert science communicators, who shared with the more than 150 attendees - including students, young researchers, journalists and consolidated scientists - their vision of how to bring closer science and society.
The speakers encouraged the audience to look for new ways of communicating science, a method that, according to José A. Morales García PhD, researcher at the Biomedical Research Institute (CSIC-UAM) "is simple, cheap and worth using".
Clara Grima, president of the Commission for Science Outreach of the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society, expressed the value of starting to disseminate science in primary and secondary schools for the future benefit of both science and society.
The researcher from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology of the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), Lluís Montoliú, expressed the importance of disseminating from the side of scientific knowledge as “this is the only way in which science can be simplified without losing rigor”.
Javier Baena, the director of the Unit of Scientific Culture of the UAM, claimed that rigor and entertainment are not at odds “You have to innovate and surprise, get out of the traditional circuits and ways of science outreach" This idea was further shared by Guillermo Orts-Gíl, who highlighted the importance and difficulty of being innovative in this challenge that is disseminating and communicating science.
The day showcased very well the diversity of channels to communicate science. In this sense, Daniel Gómez-Cabello, PhD, Marie Sklodowska Curie researcher and delegate for Copenhagen of CED, presented the new platform http://www.preguntaauncientifico.es/ through which any user can post questions and doubts to obtain science-based answers from experts, avoiding this way erroneous information currently present in social networks.
Other long-track science outreach projects presented were Apadrina la Ciencia, by Inés M. Antón, and Principia Magazine, whose editor, Carlos Romá-Mateos combines science outreach with his great passion, comics.
In regards to the role and application of science communication, José Ángel Morales-García explained how a change in the communication strategy can be useful to address important specific issues such as "neurophobia", a problem that affects students of neuroscience medicine, as well as other medicine professionals not related to neurological disciplines.
Furthermore, Elena Gómez-Díaz advocated for science dissemination without borders applied to geographically distant problems by presenting the impact that scientific communication has on the education, prevention and treatment of malaria in Africa.
Manuel Souto, a researcher at the Molecular Science Institute of the University of Valencia, explained the origins of #CienciaenelParlamento as scientific advice in political decision making.
Journalism also had its place on this day thanks to the editor of the scientific news agency SINC, Pampa García Molina, who explained how to transform science into news.
The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) participated on the Kick-off Meeting of the European project GEARING-Roles, which took place in Bilbao (Spain) on the 17-18 of January 2019. This project coordinated by the Universidad de Deusto and funded by European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme started the 1st of January 2019 and will have four years of duration.
The objective of the project is implementing gender equality plans (GEPs) in 5 universities: Spain (Universidad de Deusto), Portugal (Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território da Universidade De Lisboa), Turkey (Sabanci University), Slovenia (University of Ljubljana) and United Kingdom (Oxford Brookes University), as well as in a research funding organization from Estonia (Estonian Research Council). In order to do this, the project will:
• Assess the institutional environment and culture of each implementing organization• Train them on the use of researcher career development resources• Train them in leadership issues for female researchers• Promote the gender dimension across all research activities of the organizations• Offer direct support actions to the implementing organizations for the development of their GEPs
The role of FECYT in GEARING-RolesFECYT participate in the project due to its role as national EURAXESS Spain coordinator, which will allow promoting and testing EURAXESS tools for supporting research career development, fostering its incorporation into the GEPs, at the same time it allows to reinforce the gender dimension of EURAXESS’ own services.
Furthermore, FECYT will also support the leadership trainings and will manage an interinstitutional mentoring programme for female postdoctoral researchers among the GEP implementing organizations.
Find the latest news on the project in @GearingRoles
About EURAXESSEURAXESS is an initiative launched by the European Commission that is present in 40 countries and aims at supporting researchers in issues related to mobility and professional development.
Esta Memoria de Actividades recoge la actividad de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT) durante el 2023.
Las unidades didácticas son elaboradas en colaboración con instituciones y expertos relacionados con el tema de referencia. Tienen un doble objetivo: servir de material de apoyo al profesorado de enseñanza secundaria y contribuir a incrementar el interés por la ciencia de los estudiantes.