The ESHCC Science Communication team, which consists of Pauwke Berkers, Amanda Paz Alencar, Julian Schaap and Jacco van Sterkenburg (project secretary), is one of the project teams that receives €10,000 out of the pilot fund Appreciated! by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the KNAW. The goal of this fund is to take a step towards showcasing and rewarding the many scientists who have dedicated themselves to science communication.
ESHCC Science Communication
Pauwke Berkers, Amanda Paz Alencar, Julian Schaap and Jacco van Sterkenburg have a strong dedication to and extensive experience with science communication for about 10 – 15 years. Their research gets real impact on the ground by implementing and disseminating their findings on the European, national and local level.
The team will create a set of concrete products for a wide audience with the awarded funding. Such as a podcast series 'How does inclusion sound like' in collaboration with RASL and the Migration Hub at IMISCOE. Further, the insights of the podcast series and the research will be bundled in a digital handbook. And the team will organise critical media literacy workshops, applying findings that cut across different research projects on culture, media and sports.
“We strive to actively interact with audiences on our research. This facilitates that members of the public can have their voices heard, but also that our work is transparent for people beyond academia. Seeing the decreasing trust in science in many western societies, this latter objective has become a centerpiece in our Science Communication work.”
Appreciated!
Although interaction between science and society is of enormous importance, science communication is still far from being recognised as integral to the tasks of science. The pilot fund ‘Science communication by scientists: Appreciated!’ takes a step towards showcasing and rewarding the many scientists who have dedicated themselves to science communication. This fund is meant for ongoing science communication projects being carried out by teams of scientists.
A total of 91 applications submitted by 62 faculties across all Dutch universities have been awarded funding. Each team has received € 10,000. See the Academy website for a list of the award recipients. The Appreciated! fund is in line with the new approach to recognising and rewarding scientists, which was recently introduced in the Dutch knowledge sector. The fund was set up by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and is being administered by the Academy.