$1 million in AMP grants; Fresh Science opens; and your baby’s genome

Bulletins, Science stakeholder bulletins

We’ll be calling for Fresh Science nominations next week. We want up-and-coming Aussie scientists with a story to tell.

We’re locked in for WA, Victoria and North Queensland and are hunting for support for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Darwin. More below.

In other prize news:

Thanks to the 240 women who applied for a L’Oréal ANZ Fellowship. We’ve now selected the 19 finalists and will announce the final four Fellows in Sydney on Tuesday 8 September.

Now we’re looking for Australia’s next global L’Oréal-UNESCO Laureates—help us find and nominate female science leaders for 100,000 Euro and international prestige. More below.

Also:

Last chance to put your stories in front of the world’s science journalists:

I’ll be taking copies of our 2015 Stories of Australian Science to the World Congress of Science Journalists in June. So now is your last chance to get in if you’ve got a story you’d like included in the book. More below and drop me an email if you’re interested.

Also:

Kind regards,

Niall

Fresh young research stories wanted

Fresh Science 2015

We’re looking for early-career researchers with peer reviewed results who are ready to share their discovery with the world.

Fresh Science is a national competition that selects researchers with research results, an invention, or a discovery, trains them in how to tell their story, and helps them share their findings with the media and the public.

Ten Fresh Scientists will be chosen in each state where we’re holding an event. They’ll take part in a day of media training followed by a night down at the pub, where the spotlight shines on them. In some states there will be additional events as well, including school talks.

We’ll also publish short profiles on each Freshie, and pitch the best stories in each state to the media.

Nominations open in May with events happening around the country in July and August:

  • WA—20/21 July hosted by the West Australian Museum and supported by the five universities; Curtin, UWA, Murdoch, Edith Cowan and Notre Dame.
  • VIC—28/29 July hosted by the Melbourne Museum and supported by Biomedical Research Victoria and the Victorian government.
  • North QLD—3/4 August hosted by James Cook University and supported by AIMS (the Australian Institute of Marine Science).
  • South QLD —coming soon
  • SA—coming soon
  • NSW—coming soon

We’ll send out more information next week, but in the meantime you can read last year’s stories and check out the selection criteria online at: freshscience.org.au

Ingrid Scheffer, Jenny Graves, Suzanne Cory, Liz Blackburn and …?

Do you know a suitable candidate for a L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award?

Three Australians and one New Zealander have become L’Oréal Laureates for the Asia-Pacific region; Ingrid Scheffer, Margaret Brimble, Jennifer Graves and Suzanne Cory.

And two Australian-born scientists have won L’Oréal Laureates in the North America region, Jillian Banfield and Elizabeth Blackburn.

The 2016 edition of the awards will designate five outstanding scientific researchers in the life sciences working in one of each of the following regions: Africa & the Arab States, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America.

Eminent scientists are invited to submit candidates before 16 June 2015.

Final selection of the Laureates is made by an international jury of eminent members of the scientific community.

More information at: www.fwis.fr/en/awards

Other local grants and prizes

$1 million in grants for future leaders

AMP are offering $1 million in grants to Australian innovators, inventors, artists and musicians. And they’re keen to get more applications from scientists from all fields of science.

They’re looking for individual Australians who are working hard to make a difference in their chosen field.

Grants of between $10,000 and $100,000 will be awarded for a range of activities, including training, travel and equipment costs, research and rent.

To apply you’ll need to outline what you want to achieve, how you plan to get there and what you’ve done to move towards your goal. You’ll also need to include two referees and a budget.

Applications are open now, until 4pm 14 May 2015.

More at: www.ampstomorrowfund.com.au

Research Australia Awards —do you know a hero of medical research?

Research Australia are looking for people who are:

  • great advocates for health and medical research
  • making an impact early in their research career
  • philanthropic heroes
  • exceptional leaders and pioneers in health and medical research.

Nominations for their annual awards are now open and close 6 July 2015.

The awards will be presented at the Research Australia Dinner in Melbourne on 18 November.

More at: www.researchaustralia.org/events/category/awards-dinner

Australian Physics prizes

Do you know an Australian physicist deserving national recognition?

The Australian Institute of Physics is encouraging nominations for the following:

  • Walter Boas Medal for contributions to physics research by a member of the Institute
  • Bragg Gold Medal for the most outstanding physics PhD thesis at an Australian university
  • Outstanding Service to Physics for exceptional contribution to furthering physics as a discipline.

Nominations now open and close 1 July 2015.

More at: www.aip.org.au/info/?q=article/prize-nominations-open-aip-awards-and-more-physics-march

ACT Scientist of the Year

Canberra scientists are invited to nominate for the inaugural ACT Scientist of the Year Award.

The award will be open to individual scientists up to 10 years post-PhD based in the ACT. They can be working in basic or applied research in all fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

The winner—to be announced during National Science Week in August—will receive a $30,000 prize, and will become a ‘science ambassador’ for the ACT.

Nominations are now open and close on 9 June 2015.

For further information visit www.act.gov.au/scientistofyear 

Science events: Your baby’s genome; the benefits of stem cells and a science badass

Neil deGrasse Tyson in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra

Astrophysicist, author, celebrity, wrestler and world-recognised badass Neil deGrasse Tyson is coming to Australia in August.

Tyson is a renowned science communicator, author and host of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (the follow-up to Sagan’s own 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage).

He serves as a reminder for the wonders of scientific discovery and the universal interest in, the universe. He strives to make science and rational thought accessible to audiences of all ages, genders, nationalities, and professions, with equal parts relevance, reverence, and humour.

More information and tickets at: thinkinc.org.au/events/an-evening-with-dr-neil-degrasse-tyson

Should we sequence every baby’s genome at birth?—BioMedVic forum tonight

What’s happening in genomic medicine? How is it being applied to disease diagnosis, in personalised medicine, in the development of treatment regimens, and in public health?

Biomedical Research Victoria invites you to join them on Monday 11 May for their free public forum featuring:

  • Ingrid Winship, clinical geneticist
  • Liat Harrower, consumer advocate
  • David Amor, paediatric clinical geneticist
  • Ainsley Newson, bioethicist.

The panel will be moderated by Walkley award winning journalist and broadcaster Paul Barclay, and recorded for ABC’s Big Ideas.

For more information and to register: biomedvic.org.au/symposium/genomic-medicine-symposium

Stem cells, real benefits? Join Norman Swan and UQ this Thursday

Where is stem cell science today? How is it being translated into therapies? What are the current regulatory and philosophical issues facing scientists as they work to move their scientific insights into commercial products?

Join moderator Norman Swan for this public forum on translating stem cell research into real health and economic benefits at the University of Queensland on Thursday 14 May with:

  • international leaders in stem cell research Alan Trounson and Martin Pera
  • local legends Ernst Wolvetang and Peter Grey
  • rising star Christine Wells.

More information and register at: www.alumni.uq.edu.au/gls-stem-cell

The Big #RooCount

Here’s your chance to help conserve an Australian icon.

Our friends Jen Martin and Euan Ritchie have set up a pozible campaign to go and revisit some kangaroos up north they last studied 10 years ago.

They’ve heard that the population is not doing so well, so they are packing up the kids for an outback adventure to go and collect more data.

A few weeks back their campaign temporarily made $2 billion, but it soon disappeared, so they are still looking for a few more dollars.

You can read more about their adventure, and pledge your support at: www.pozible.com/project/195117

Stories of Australian Science 2015—last chance for submissions

Our Stories of Australian Science summarises the best of Australian science, and some of the best of our work of the past year.

The 2015 edition will be distributed at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Korea in June, at the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science dinner, at the AAAS conference in February 2016, and to journalists, diplomats, politicians and others in Australia and overseas.

We’ll print 10,000 copies and make it freely available online.

Email me, or call the office on (03) 9398 1416, if you’d like to include your best science of 2014 in this year’s storybook.

Prices start at $1,200 + GST for a single story, and are discounted for multiple stories.

More details at: stories.scienceinpublic.com.au/submission

Media and communication training dates

Courses in Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth…

Conveying the complexity of your research into a 30-second grab for the media can be hard, and sometimes daunting.

The solution is to shape the essence of your science into a story.

Our full-day media and communication training course will help you with all your non-scientific communication with stakeholders, customers and the media. It will help you feel comfortable with the media and give your media advisors confidence that you will be a good performer when media opportunities arise.

Upcoming courses are:

  • Melbourne: Wednesday 3 June
  • Sydney: Tuesday 7 July
  • Melbourne: mid-July (date TBC)
  • Canberra: Tuesday 1 September
  • Melbourne: Tuesday 15 September
  • Perth: Friday 2 October

For more dates: www.scienceinpublic.com/training

We can also hold courses in other locations or on other dates if there’s sufficient demand, and we welcome expressions of interest for possible future courses.

If you have at least four participants, we can probably find others in your area to make a course viable. Or if you want a brief introduction to the media for a larger group, talk to us about our meet the press sessions.

More about Science in Public

Contact me to find out more about our services to train, mentor, plan and deliver media and communication strategies for science. We offer:

Communication plans, mentoring and training

We can review your stakeholders, messages and tools and help you and your communication team refine your plans. We offer this service for individual announcements or for a whole program or institute.

Media releases, launches, and campaigns

We can help you develop an outreach program, from a simple media release through to a launch, a summit, a conference, or a film.

Publications and copy-writing

From a tweet to a newsletter; from a brochure to a Nature supplement, we can write compelling and accurate science-driven copy which captures the essence of your story and purpose.