One of the common questions Minerva is asked by researchers involved in EC-funded scientific research projects is “how do I communicate my work and its results to different audiences”?
And this is going to become an ever more important consideration for researchers because the obligations for the next wave of EC-funded research, “Horizon 2020”, require projects to communicate their work from day one of their project – not just focusing on what they have discovered at the end. So as experts in the field, Minerva cannot place enough emphasis on the importance for those involved in scientific projects to communicate frequently, and with impact, to stakeholders, industry, policy-makers, media and the general public.
That’s why Minerva used the recent General Assembly of the I.Family Study – an EC-funded project investigating the determinants of food choice, lifestyle and health in European citizens – as the perfect opportunity to encourage its young researchers to find their ‘X factor’. It encouraged delegates to identify the key research messages relevant to their role and the project overall, and gave them the opportunity to practice delivering those messages in ‘real-time’ interview scenarios on-camera (… minus the kind of harsh feedback you hear from TV talent show judges, of course!)
Kate Viggers, who co-ordinated the training alongside Director of Minerva, Rhonda Smith, said: “It was so useful to gather researchers from different disciplines and countries together in the one room, to give them an insight into how their ‘piece of the puzzle’ fits alongside all the other research taking place in I.Family’s 12 European cohorts – and, crucially, how that can be communicated most effectively. We were so impressed with their interview performances – particularly as many of them speak English as a second language; a fact that we always consider when planning and delivering our training in Europe.”
Minerva continues to provide communications support to this five-year project, running from 2012 to 2017, by managing the public website, writing media releases and delivering training to help researchers across Europe tell the I.Family story.