A portfolio of Science in Public’s work

We enjoy getting science into the public space. And there are many different ways to do that. The type of work that we specialise in includes:

  • organising conferences and other events: from the bid, to finding sponsors, to handling the media
  • managing science prizes and celebrating the winners
  • producing storybooks and other publications which showcase Australian science, such as annual reports
  • working day-to-day with our clients to promote their work, their people and events on an ongoing or ad hoc basis

Major scientific conferences

We set up and manage conference media centres, with facilities for journalists and media briefings, and put together special media events and photo opportunities.

Niall and Sarah were also Conference Director and Executive Officer for the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, 2007, and helped to secure the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers for Melbourne, 2009.

63rd UN DPI NGO conference – Advance Global Health

The 63rd UN Department of Public Information (DPI) NGO conference brought 2,000 people representing 350 non-governmental organisations to Australia to discuss global health and the Millennium Development Goals. Science in Public delivered a media program in collaboration with the UN DPI media officer.

We drew significant media attention:

  • 150 accredited journalists
  • Daily coverage on national television and radio via the ABC, SBS and Channel Ten
  • Daily coverage on ABC’s international television and radio networks in the Asia Pacific with over 30 interviews with conference delegates and three hours of live outside broadcast from the conference.
  • A dozen stories on Australia’s national news agency, AAP
  • Three pages of feature coverage in The Age
  • Wide print, radio and online coverage with nearly 300 stories monitored so far
  • A media website with 60 media releases including 40 from individual NGOs and extensive media resources including webcasts and 1,000 photos.

There was also strong following on social media:

  • A conference and public program website with integrated Twitter, Facebook and Flickr feeds that attracted about 1,000 unique visitors
  • A Twitter and Facebook campaign that so far has made over a million impressions reaching nearly 100,000 people with tweets from hundreds of individuals
  • Immediate interaction with conference delegates tweeting out of the conference during sessions.

The media facilities included space for 100 journalists and two briefing rooms as well as computers, printers and reliable internet access.

Our program included regular media briefings on the conference, interspersed with NGO media briefings.

The media web pages are at http://makinghealthglobal.com.au/media.

Science prizes

Our work ranges from promoting the winner of a prize to organising the call for nominations and the judging process.

The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science

We’ve been working on storytelling and media liaison for the Prime Minister’s Prizes since 2004. Media coverage has steadily grown over that time, and the Prizes get more media attention than other comparable science prizes. We usually get photo stories in most of the daily metropolitan newspapers and significant television and radio coverage, both commercial and ABC.

Each of the winners is featured in profiles or in-depth interviews.

Read our profiles of the 2011 recipients here.

Fresh Science

Fresh Science provides comprehensive media training for up to 16 early-career Australian researchers each year, and generates between 200 and 300 media stories worldwide of their achievements.

It has been run by Science in Public since it started in 1998.

The program has now provided media experience to more than 200 of Australia’s up and coming research leaders. It has been so successful that the Canadian Government is exploring having Science in Public introduce a similar program there.

More information at www.freshscience.org.au

Storybooks and publications

Stories of Australian Science

Stories of Australian Science is a magazine-style print collection illustrating the diversity of Australian science.  They are distributed around the world via Australian embassies, as well as being sent to journalists and decision-makers across Australia.

The first edition was put together in 2007 when journalists met in Melbourne for the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists. Since then we’ve produced six storybooks, including one on collaborations between China and Australia for the Shanghai World Expo 2010, and one focussing on Australian astronomy.

You can read these magazines online, download them as pdf files or request a print copy of our most recent storybooks at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/stories

Deakin University research brochure

We wrote a series of case studies illustrating the work of Deakin University’s Faculty of Science.

We provided the content, Deakin and Deztop Design handled the design and print production.

Click here to view the brochure on the Deakin website.

Note: it is an 8 Mb download.

US-Australia Innovation

In February 2011, Australia and America’s science leaders met in Washington DC to explore closer science collaboration.

Science in Public was commissioned by the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research to produce a series of eight factsheets for the meeting, showcasing some of the successes of past and present US-Australian collaboration in science, and signalling future collaboration.

It’s not a comprehensive account—just some of the people and transformational projects spanning a breadth of research areas.

You can view the factsheets online, as individual PDF files or all together as one pdf.

Other major projects

We support these organisations to promote their science and engage with the media and the public.

And in the past, we’ve worked on:

Australia Hears launch

TV crews at a media launch

For the last few years, Australia Hears (now Blamey & Saunders) has been quietly selling and refining hearing aids based on Graeme Clark’s famous bionic ear. Today, there are hundreds in use around Australia.

We planned and executed a media launch for Australia Hears which attracted all the major Australian TV stations (Ten, Nine, Seven, SBS and ABC).

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