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March 4, 2020

Babeș-Bolyai University's strategy to bring academia closer to society. An interview with Daniel David

There is a major obstacle for researchers who want to communicate with the public: they have no institutional motivation to do so, quite the contrary. They are judged more on the results of their research (articles, books or chapters, etc.), and not at all on the number of press interviews, community events or experiments they do for children. At absolutely every researcher communication workshop I have given I have been asked this question at some point: So why would I communicate?
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March 3, 2020

Science and Communication Newsletter #2

Yes, Coronavirus has also infected this newsletter with two articles, but you can also read about how the IQ of Romanians has increased by 3 points in the last 10 years, about public funding of universities in Romania and why it is a signal that we need to invest in promoting research, a study from Romania about women in science, an analysis of who and how communicates science in Europe and how to get a career in science communication.
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February 25, 2020

Why promote research: public money for higher education in Romania is below 2008 levels

Public investment in higher education is below the level of 12 years ago (20% less). The number of students has decreased by 31% compared to 2008: the number of employees by 11% (for academic positions) and 3% for administrative positions. The increase in funding from 2015-2018 comes mainly from salary increases.
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February 18, 2020

Who and where communicates about science in Europe?

A European project dedicated to science communication, ReThink, has set out to map science communication actors. They didn't look at the whole continent,...
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February 11, 2020

A study, on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

When 210 children, boys and girls, in Romania were asked to draw a "person working in science", most of them drew a man. Of the 100 boys, only one drew a woman. Of the girls, less than half drew a woman.
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February 7, 2020

Science and Communication Newsletter #1

I took the time and courage to start a newsletter about science communication. It's called "Science and Communication", and I sent it out this week to some former participants of...
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January 31, 2020

Three filters to avoid communicating pseudoscience by mistake

This text is intended as a basic assessment tool for deciding whether a piece of information is credible enough to be turned into either a press release (by a press office) or an article (for journalists). I'll exemplify the ideas on the earthquake prediction news, because it's an interesting case.
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January 30, 2020

The upcoming Magurele Science Park will familiarize researchers with marketing and business

In the world of science, we hear better and better things about Măgurele Science Park. From a distance, it looks like a concentration of...
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January 28, 2020

Basic rules for researchers in dealing with journalists

The relationship between researchers and journalists is all the better when both sides understand each other's jobs, limitations and pressures. When I have the time and the researcher has the availability, I try to provide some background information about journalists so that they better understand what to expect. Here I have compiled just the basic ideas.
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January 13, 2020

Why is CERN investing in communication to kindergarten children? An interview with the head of education programmes

CERN invests money in communication to children as young as 6. CERN's education officer explained why.
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January 12, 2020

The researcher-communicator relationship

How can a communicator help in conveying the message of science? What needs and expectations does a researcher have and what can the communication specialist offer in return?
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January 11, 2020

Science communication - a simple model

A basic explanation of the researcher - communication specialist - press - public relationship, with examples from Romania.
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January 8, 2020

Researchers also have a "bubble" of their own. How and why they communicate outside it

If ever there is talk of communication in research, the word "dissemination" is most likely to be used. It generally refers to the publication of results in...
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August 1, 2019

Three types of presentation - Bonus (4). Person

In previous posts we have talked about the best ways to structure a presentation on a scientific topic. We talked about three main structures: the solution,...
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