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Objectives: This work package aims at building capacities and identifying incentives for science communication for different key actors, from scientists, to journalists, to public information officers.
Science communication education and training across Europe
There is a broad range of science communication training opportunities around Europe, but an up-to-date mapping of the available courses has not existed – until now. The QUEST partner Ca’ Foscari University of Venice has charted science communication education and training courses in Europe, taking into account the the level of teaching, its target and purpose, and its focus. The research found 115 courses in 18 European countries. You can read more about the results in this blog post and explore the interactive map here. To download the full deliverable, click below.
Curriculum on science journalism
Science journalism students are taking up their studies at a time when objective and independent journalism itself is under increasing pressure, particularly in the mainstream media. Dwindling revenues for legacy media mean news corporations and publications are less likely to employ science specialists, while elements of the powerful and unaccountable social media publish misinformation based on fake or discredited science.
It is in this challenging context that the next generation of science journalists face a particular need to develop skills to engage audiences and encourage science literacy. Our curriculum aims to redress the balance and offer a complementary route to effective, journalistically focussed science communication.
Read more about the curriculum in this blog post. You can download the full curriculum below.
QUEST – Curriculum on Science Journalism
Deliverable 4.2: Curriculum on Science Journalism
Toolkits for quality science communication
The QUEST toolkits are a set of tools developed within the QUEST project aiming to support scientists, press and communication officers, journalists, museum explainers, social media content managers and science communicators at large in the communication activity and help them develop the needed capacities. Moreover, some of the tools provide insights that encourage greater public understanding of science and its communication. The tools were developed starting from an overview of the toolkits and guidelines already available and the direct interaction with the different stakeholders, trainers and other professionals to identify the challenges to communicate science but also suggestions to tackle them. QUEST made a particular effort to develop tools to cover or go more in depth in those topics not so treated yet or remaining still critical in the science communication context. The toolkits are organised according to the target groups on which QUEST focuses, i.e. scientists, journalists, museums facilitators, social media content managers. Moreover, a section with tools of interest for the general public has been inserted.
Deliverable 4.3: Educational Toolkits for Science Communication
Recommendations on policies and incentives for quality science communication
Over the course of the QUEST project, we have identified policies and incentives for promoting quality science communication. You can read more about our recommendations here, and download our policy factsheets for the different key policy and decision-makers below.
QUEST Policy and Incentive Recommendations for EU Policy-Makers
QUEST Policy and Incentive Recommendations for Media Decision-Makers
Below, you can watch a recording of our workshop with stakeholders discussing our findings on policies and incentives. The workshop was held 18 May, 2021 as part of the Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference 2020+1 (PCST).
