(Science) Communication is Key - Analysing and Adapting Outreach Approaches and Internal Workflows to Support HELPING as a Major International Scientific Initiative.

The IAHS’ scientific decades are unique as international scientific initiatives in the hydrological community, linking researchers from around the globe, from different professional backgrounds, and at different career stages. The current HELPING - Science for Solutions decade in particular aims to address the current water crises by synthesising hydrological knowledge, establishing links between local and global processes, applying cross-cutting methods, and providing science-based decision support. This approach aims to involve not just hydrologists worldwide, but also practitioners, decision-makers, and a broader general public. Given these objectives, (science) communication is paramount. It is also the main focus of a dedicated HELPING Working Group. 

This study aims to analyse which internal and external communication approaches can be harnessed to support the success of an international scientific initiative like HELPING, both through streamlining internal workflows between participants, and through providing a coherent, easily digestible message to an external public. It strives to assess communication lessons learned from previous IAHS scientific decades - Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) and Panta Rhei - while also taking into account the changes in communication technology since the launch of the first decade in 2003. Subsequently, it casts the net wider and analyses successful communication and diffusion approaches used by similar scientific initiatives launched recently at different scales. 

On a meta level, the different approaches needed for internal and external HELPING communication are assessed. What strategies can be leveraged to raise awareness for the scientific decade within the hydrological community, especially among researchers in locations and at career stages where they would typically not be highly involved? What tools can be harnessed to communicate the aims and achievements of HELPING to a wider public and to encourage interactions and participation? And, ultimately, what workflows are needed to assess the progress and impact of the HELPING decade itself, and to track all the initiatives and research by individual hydrologists carried out under its banner? 

Keywords: science communication, IAHS, scientific decades