Scientists communicate to non-peer audiences through numerous pathways including websites, blogs, public lectures, media interviews, and educational collaborations. A considerable amount of time and money is invested in this public engagement and these efforts are to a large extent responsible for the public perception of science. However, few incentives exist for researchers to optimize their communication practices to ensure effective outreach. This session encourages critical reflection on science communication practices and provides an opportunity for science communicators to share best practice and experiences with evaluation and research in this field.

We invite everybody who has been involved in any of these activities to share her/his experience in this session:
• Do you consider yourself a science communicator?
• Does your research group or institution participate in public engagement activities?
• Have you ever evaluated or published your education and outreach efforts?
– then submit an abstract on your experiences to this session.
This session would also include examples of how science can and should support decision-making. Presenters would come from public, private and research sector.