Science is vital to society. It allows civilisations to advance, economies to prosper and provides solutions to societal problems. Unfortunately, the benefits of science aren’t automatically understood by the wider public – they must be communicated!

Science communicated to citizens poorly (or not at all), can lead to a lack of trust in scientists and apathy towards research which has the potential to cause a plethora of issues (ranging from the anti-vax movement to less research funding from public institutions). On a more personal level, failure to communicate your research in a way that can be understood by the public may results being underutilised or your research being misquoted.

Communicating your research to citizens is obviously important but how to communicate effectively to a non-scientific community isn’t always so straightforward. The first half of this session will outline some tips to communicate your research with the public, the challenges that scientists may face and how these can be overcome.

The second half of the session will feature two speakers who are working to bridge the gap between research and society. They will outline some institutionalised routes that scientists can take to connect with citizens and provide examples of when it has had unexpected benefits.