The first FACCE ERA-GAS Communications Workshop was held on 10th and 11th October, at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, and was facilitated by representatives of the CommBeBiz project co-ordination team, Minerva.

The event marked the launch of the ten projects funded by the EC-funded programme FACCE ERA-GAS, the ERA-NET Co-fund for monitoring and mitigation of greenhouse gases from agriculture and forestry.

The aim of is to strengthen the trans-national co-ordination of research programmes and provide added value to research and innovation on greenhouse gas mitigation in the European Research Area.

The workshop provided a two-part Communication and Stakeholder Engagement event, hosted by Wageningen University, which has a strong affiliation with bioeconomy research.  It began with round table discussions giving each project the opportunity to present its research, answer questions, and seek research affiliations between projects.

Rhonda Smith, Director of Minerva, and Annabel Mead, Senior Project Manager for CommBeBiz, joined different roundtables, listening to the projects’ focus and raising awareness of CommBeBiz’s own aims.

Minerva led the first session on Strategy, identifying stakeholders, objectives, messages and channels. The second session focused on tactics, highlighting science communications actions and practical tips for creating impact.

The Tactics session (see photo below) began with a Twitter exercise. Projects decided on four key words that sum up their project, including ‘bioeconomy’, which were then photographed, and with a short caption uploaded to Twitter.

For further information visit https://www.eragas.eu