Save the date for the final conference of the Horizon 2020 ORION Open Science project, where we will be sharing achievements and lessons gained throughout the project. On 27 September, a project showcase will provide practical tips and tricks on methodologies, tools and materials for implementing Open Science in your institution. On 28 September, we will bring policy makers and other stakeholders together to discuss ways to embed Open Science practices at national, European and institutional level. The virtual final conference is free of charge and open to anyone interested in Open Science practices and discussing its future implications in a national and international context.

Thinking differently through dialogue - ORION Inspiring Story

To help open science up to a wider audience, ORION organised a number of public dialogues in the UK, Sweden, Germany and the Czech Republic during 2019-2020. One purpose of the dialogues was to explore public attitudes to genome editing technology, which has revolutionized scientific research in the past decade and has the potential for broad societal impact. The dialogues also aimed to understand how to engage the public on disruptive technologies and how public engagement strategies could vary between countries. Information about the potential use of the technology has led to a wide variety of different opinions and reactions from the public, which are not always based on scientific fact. The empirical evidence gathered during the dialogues will provide the basis of future communications strategies within the ORION institutions.

Encouraging co-creation through a funding call - ORION Inspiring Story

A major goal of the ORION project was to open a funding call that encouraged different stakeholders to come together and present new and innovate ways to make science more accessible and participatory. The overall aim of this funding call was to support long-term collaboration between unusual/different stakeholders. By putting time and energy into assembling many different stakeholders to design the co-creation call, the ORION team thought that they would give the funding applications the best possible chance of creating a unique project with real potential for impact. 

What are the advantages of a podcast for communicating about Open Science? - ORION Inspiring Story

The ORION Open Science Podcast started as a way to communicate with new audiences. For science to be open, information has to be accessible, and taking advantage of this unique audio medium was too good an opportunity to pass up. The podcast officially launched with episode one in 2019 and is now in its second season, lead by podcast hosts Luiza Bengtsson and Zoe Ingram, who have deep dive discussions with experts on a wide variety of topics related to Open Science.

Putting Open Science into practice 

The Public Communication of Science and Technology, PCST, conferences take place every two years, bringing together practitioners, educators and researchers in the diverse and growing field of science communication. The Covid-19 pandemic and science engagement were unsurprisingly key themes addressed throughout this year's PCST conference in late May 2021. The ORION team participated in the VA Public & Science’s roundtable session on ‘Engaging the Public through Open Science – Putting theory into practice’ which showcased practical examples of methods and activities for engaging the public in the research process.