Perspectives on Science Communication

Abstract

Diverse actors within and outside the academic system increasingly call upon scientists to engage with the public through science communication as part of their academic work. This raises the question of how these actors' demands can and should be met in practice. At the conference on “Perspectives on science communication”, which took place on 27 May 2024, at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, interested scientists and communicators from the Leibniz Association came together to reflect on the strategic development of the field of science communication. The focus was on the exchange of realistic goals, important actions and the actors responsible for the further development of the field and practice of science communication. These three topics were discussed in the context of a keynote speech and a panel discussion, as well as with regard to specific forms of interaction between science and society, including informative, dialogic and participatory formats of science communication. The discussions reveal a diversity of goals scientists can aim for, but also a multitude of action areas that need to be addressed by a number of actors to achieve these goals. Goals particularly hinted at an increasing, yet-to-be-defined quantity of communication, including contents related to informing about facts in societal debates, engaging in democratic dialogue and encouraging participation of citizens in research to increase innovation in science, but also process-related goals such as building partnerships, communicating transparently or providing support for scientists. Action areas to achieve these goals are diverse and regard strengthening recognition and reputation, supporting and protecting scientists, providing temporal and financial resources for science communication and changing researcher’s attitudes. In terms of actors, conference participants hinted at the diverse roles of different actors, focusing the discussion on actors in academia, politics and administration, civil society as well as boundary organisations such as the media as key actors to further advance the topic of science communication. This conference report elaborates the results related to these three topics and, thus, creates the basis for an in-depth discussion of the results in Germany and internationally.

Keywords

• knowledge exchange
• knowledge transfer
• public eng