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Description
An underestimated but extremely necessary role of science and scientists is to have a positive social impact and shape a democratic knowledge-based society. As part of this grant, we want to increase the involvement of scientists in communicating scientific achievements in the field of climate change and shape our own, effective and adequate scientific communication in response to the changing social landscape of climate change perception. Not only do we want to empower young scientists, but also to contribute to the implementation of systemic changes in the entire academic community in Poland. These ambitious goals can be met by an organisation that strategically and flexibly plans its activities, ensures stable development of its employees and draws conclusions from a critical evaluation of its own activities, investing in increasing management competences and communication strategy.
Summary of project results
As part of this project, we wanted to increase the involvement of scientists in public life by:
- building relationships and cooperation between scientists and the media and journalists in order to create more effective communication strategies
- strengthening the competences of scientists in the use of social media
- familiarizing young scientists with the media, including the rights they are entitled to.
In the area of developing the organization''s resources, we have identified an update of the science communication strategy for the Foundation and the Naukoklimacie.pl portal due to the fact that over the last decade the Polish landscape of social perception of climate change has evolved, resulting in the emergence of new denialist strategies. In order to effectively communicate scientific knowledge, we decided to identify and address new challenges and adapt forms of communication to them.
Due to the dynamic development of the Foundation, it was necessary to increase management competences.
Activities:
As part of this project, we conducted two-day, practical workshops in a pioneering formula involving intensive 1:1 work between journalists and young scientists from academic centers outside Warsaw. 19 people took part in the workshops. During the workshops, we jointly developed recommendations regarding good practices of cooperation between scientists and journalists. Following the workshops, all participating scientists decided to undertake long-term cooperation with the Foundation, declaring their availability for media inquiries handled by the Foundation. The second action taken was to establish cooperation with the Jagiellonian University Climate Council, which resulted in the development of recommendations for the implementation of climate strategies at universities (the Jagiellonian University Climate Strategy was adopted by the university Senate at the end of April). The third pillar of the project was to conduct internal workshops for the team of the Climate Education Foundation, the aim of which was to improve competences in the field of effective science communication, and their product is the document: internal science communication strategy. The workshops were conducted for the team by Krzysztof Jodłowski and Jagoda Mytych. The team also identified the need to further develop the competence area related to effective scientific communication, so it can be expected that the activity will continue after the end of the grant.
Products:
- organization management strategy: anti-burnout strategy and implementation of talent management in the organization,
- science communication strategy of the scienceoklimacie.pl portal
- a set of recommendations for popularizers of climate science
- 10 media materials (articles, interviews, infographics or recordings)
- road map of recommendations for universities
The heart of the project were workshops for young scientists and journalists. We were curious whether the activities we planned had a positive impact on the participants. Based on the evaluation survey conducted after the workshops, we learned that:
- 85% of respondents assessed the workshop program as very good, the remaining 15% assessed it as good,
- all participants assessed the selection of presenters for the program very positively,
- all respondents would recommend participation in the workshops to their friends.
Below are some comments from participants:
- "Fantastic! I stand by the opinion that these were the most interesting workshops I have ever had the opportunity to take part in - a very diverse company and constant mixing during the exercises were very good."
- "A very positive thing - I liked the interactions between journalists and scientists and working together. Overall, the idea behind the workshops was great."
- "I will praise you again (I know, it''s boring). A completely different nature of the tasks - attractive "selling" a topic in which you are not a specialist (teams) and direct work to briefly sell a topic that you can talk about for a week (duets) showed other aspects of communication challenges."
- "Definitely yes! I think scientists need to get out of their bubble. Communicating our science is very important, and unfortunately we are not taught it. Such workshops are a great opportunity to gain experience and be open to cooperation with journalists."
- "In addition to a lot of information strictly about climate change that I had no idea about, the most valuable thing I learned is the awareness that I can write about it like many other things - without unnecessary pomp and seriousness."
-"I learned that seemingly complicated matters can be simpler than they seem, and there are many interesting stories hidden in seemingly "boring" topics."