Cancer researcher wins Researchers’ Grand Prix

Seven researchers from across Sweden competed in the final of the Researchers’ Grand Prix held on 27 November in Stockholm. The 2018 competition was won by a researcher from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, who impressed the audience and jury with his engaging four-minute presentation on how proteins can be used to develop new biological drugs to tackle cancer.

European Researchers’ Night celebrated across Sweden

Researchers in 29 Swedish cities shared their passion for research and science at this year’s European Researchers’ Night celebrations held on 28 & 29 September. Around 17,000 visitors participated in hundreds of free hands-on activities, experiments, shows, discussions and guided tours in venues ranging from cafés, libraries and shopping centres, to museums, high-tech laboratories and science centres.

Forthcoming activities

VA is facilitating a new webinar series of Urban Lunch Talks exploring the dilemma of creating and using inclusive urban environments. The next two webinars on urban resilience and sustainable urban land use will be held on 11 & 25 January. Check VA’s calendar for more details of how to participate.

A series of co-creation events focusing on the bioeconomy are being organised across Europe by the EU BLOOM Bioeconomy project. A first pilot workshop took place in Stockholm on 5 December where participants shared their knowledge and discussed how to enhance interest for forestry and wood-based products in Sweden. Join the second workshop on 29 January where we will be exploring target groups and outreach activities in more depth.

VA’s recent activities

A range of resources to support both new and established Science Shops are now available. Produced by the EU SciShops project, the resources include guides, case studies, scenarios and roadmaps, which address various aspects of setting up and running a Science Shop and take into account different types of organisational models. You can also read more about VA’s participation in the project in an interview with project manager Helen Garrison.

Engaging with multiple stakeholders in dialogue and activities to explore different ways to make research in life science and biomedicine more open and participatory is at heart of the EU ORION Open Science project. At national workshops in Spain, the UK, Czechia and Germany, stakeholders have been discussing attitudes towards open science and ways to encourage more participation in science. VA presented the results of the ORION survey on Public attitudes to life sciences research in six European countries at events held in Bonn and Cambridge.

A new anthology on youth and digital media contains a chapter on the News Evaluator, a tool for teaching digital source criticism in schools developed by VA together with Uppsala University and RISE Interactive. The open access book is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, and includes contributions from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Available now to download.

Communicating science in a complex world was the topic of an event held on 17 October in Brussels. Seventy-five representatives from science, industry, media, civil society and politics met to discuss the challenges and opportunities of communicating socially relevant research in a strategic and interconnected way.

How do I maximise my chances of becoming an astronaut? What does it feel like to look down on earth from space? These and many more questions were answered by astronauts Christer Fuglesand and Chiaki Mukai at a conference on sparking interest in science through space organised by Umbilical Design and VA in October in Stockholm.

VA’s recent publications and resources available in English

VA Barometer 2017/2018: An annual survey into the Swedish public’s general attitudes towards science and researchers. 2018/2019 Barometer results to be published shortly.

VA information folder 2018: Information about VA and its members.
 
SwafS national advocacy platform: to enhance Swedish participation in Horizon 2020’s SwafS programme.

Public attitudes to life sciences research in six European countries: results of a survey conducted by the EU ORION Open Science project

VA in social media