VA to help research open up to society in new EU project

ORION is a new collaborative European project to explore ways in which research and funding organisations in life sciences and biomedicine can open up the way they fund, organise and do research. VA (Public & Science) is one of the nine partners in the project, leading on communication and dissemination activities, a public survey and public dialogues.

Sweden joins global March for Science

Over 2,500 people took to the streets to participate in the March for Science in Stockholm on 22 April. Marches were also held in four other Swedish cities, Gothenburg, Uppsala, Umeå and Luleå, as part of the global March for Science initiative that involved hundreds of thousands of people in a total of 610 cities worldwide.

VA’s latest activities

VA’s experiences at Eusea’s annual conference 
The annual Eusea (European Science Engagement Association) conference brings together science communicators from all over Europe and beyond. This year, VA contributed two sessions to the conference held 29–30 May in Belgium. Read about VA’s Lena Söderström’s experiences and impressions.
 
SciComm along the Silk Road – report on VA’s trip to Beijing
At the beginning of June, VA’s Lotta Tomasson was invited to participate in the 2017 Beijing International Symposium on Science Communication. The conference provided an interesting insight into science communication in China as well as an opportunity to share VA’s work and expertise. Read about Lotta’s experiences.

Other news

Swedish pupils to develop source criticism tool
Fake news is a topic that is currently generating much debate. But what kind of news is streaming through young people’s digital news feeds? And how trustworthy do young people think this news is? For the first time, researchers and pupils from across Sweden will together be investigating these questions in a mass experiment being run as part of the 2017 Researchers’ Night in Sweden.

Results of the 2016 Notice Board experiment published
What is the function of the physical notice board in the digital age? Over 1,500 pupils have been helping researchers from the Universities of Gothenburg, Stockholm and Örebro to investigate in a mass experiment involving schools across the whole of Sweden. The results have now been analysed by researchers.

European Researchers’ Night to be celebrated in 31 Swedish cities
Thirty-one Swedish cities will participate in this year’s Researchers’ Night science festival being held on 29 September. The theme of the 2017 Swedish activities is the image of the researcher, which will challenge stereotypical images of scientists and researchers. A draw a scientist competition is also being run for pupils aged 6 to 12.
 
So you are a researcher… what’s your research about?
Guest blog by Hugo Gutiérrez de Terán and Eva Garmendia, researchers at Uppsala University, questioning who teaches researchers how to communicate science properly.

VA’s recent publications and resources available in English

VA Barometer 2016/2017: An annual survey into the Swedish public’s general attitudes towards science and researchers.

VA information folder 2016/2017: Information about VA and its members.
 
SwafS national advocacy platform: to enhance Swedish participation in Horizon 2020’s SwafS programme.

VA in social media