Tell us your stories of research collaboration with EU countries.
Have you had successful collaborations between Aussies and EU? We’re writing stories for the EU Delegation and the French Embassy in Canberra, so tell us about your success.
Put your rising stars in front of the people who create factual content for billions of viewers around the world. They’re looking for new faces and new ideas and they’ll be in Brisbane in November. More below.
Changes at Science in Public
Marisa Cardoso has joined the Science in Public team. She’s based at our new Sydney office, and is leading our work for the new Digital Health CRC and other Sydney projects. She knows science marketing inside-out as a result of developing new business opportunities for UNSW across the world and then heading up the science marketing team.
Michael Lucy has joined us in Melbourne after a stint as features editor at Cosmos. Michael holds a science degree in nuclear physics balanced with a grad dip in creative arts.
Toni Stevens has moved from Science in Public after five years, to take up a communication role with the Ecological Society of Australia. As our chief of staff, Toni played a critical role in supporting the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, L’Oréal’s Women in Science Fellowships, and Fresh Science. She was instrumental in helping Science in Public to build the core team of eight we have today, based in Melbourne and Sydney.
ABC events at the Melbourne Museum
From #metoo challenging sexual harassment in science, to bringing extinct creatures back from the dead, and asking whether science has an image problem in schools—join ABC’s Natasha Mitchell and special guests in a series of thought-provoking Science Friction Live discussions at the Melbourne Museum.
They’re held from now through to December. Details below.
We’ve also got media training courses coming up in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, and Perth—where we help you turn your life’s work into an accurate story that works for the media, government, industry, and others.
Tell us about your Europe-Australia research collaborations
We’re helping the European Union Delegation and the French Embassy in Canberra to pull together a list of collaborative research involving Australia and EU countries.
We’re interested in the full suite of research from basic science right through to research that’s close to a commercial application or has achieved a practical outcome here and in Europe.
We’ll share the list online. We’ll then write up a selection of the stories for two publications: a collection of EU and a collection of French collaborations. They’ll be published online and presented to a meeting of EU and Australian science agencies.
While collaborations with research powerhouses such as France and Germany are important, we’d also like to show the full breadth of Europe’s ties with Australia by also including examples of some of the smaller member states leading the way with innovation and technology, such as Estonia and Malta.
For reference, the 28 current members of the EU are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
So please let us know your most exciting European collaborations—including those with smaller nations—and we’ll compile them and share them with the Delegation.
Last year we asked for stories on Indonesian-Australian collaboration. You can see the result of that call at stories.scienceinpublic.com.au/Indonesia.
You can also see our collections of Japan and US stories at stories.scienceinpublic.com.au.
If you know of partnerships in a similar vein, please contact myself on niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or my colleague Michael on michael@scienceinpublic.com.au with some information about the work and the details of the scientist we can talk to (if it’s not you).
Note: we’re not asking you to write stories for us. We just need a headline or project name, the names of the organisations involved, a contact and a link for further information.
World Congress of Science and Factual Producers coming to Brisbane
Put your science in front of the leading science documentary makers at the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers in Brisbane from 27 November.
It’s an opportunity to put your best researchers, ideas, and locations in front of the people who reach billions of people through Discovery Channel, the BBC, Netflix, China Central TV and many others.
The organisers are offering Australian research organisations opportunities to partner by:
- exhibiting at the conference
- holding your own briefings on hot topics, such as science in the tropics, one health, and the state of the Reef
- supporting ‘rising stars’ – researchers breaking into TV.
Congress is the annual global meeting for everyone who makes, commissions, and broadcasts science and factual TV. Last year it was in San Francisco. This year it’s in Brisbane thanks to the support of the Queensland government, the ABC and SBS.
Congress offers unique opportunities to influence both the broadcasters and creators who bring content to billions of viewers each year. Discovery Channel alone has over 440 million viewers. Animal Planet has over 350 million. China Central Television has 50 channels and a billion viewers. All were represented at Congress in San Francisco last year along with commissioners from:
- BBC
- Netflix
- NHK
- Arte – the Franco German network
- National Geographic Channel
- PBS
- Canada’s CBC
- SBS and ABC
- Dozens of other networks from national broadcasters to cult YouTube channels.
There are a range of ways you could be involved. The Congress team can customize something to support your individual needs, or you can choose from a menu of options including:
- exhibition booths starting from $4,500
- support of rising stars in science – a mentorship package for the next generation of science presenters from $6,000
- Support for producers from emerging markets such as Indonesia, India and Vietnam – from $6,000
- holding your own presentation or group meeting (with the option of tying this to breakfast or lunch) from $10,000
- alignment with post-Congress tours for smaller groups of VIPs – price by negotiation.
The full prospectus is available at https://bit.ly/2L04TcL.
It includes a comprehensive range of sponsorship options and you can read more about the Congress at www.wcsfp.com.
Please note that the prospectus is priced in US dollars but, for Australian research organisations we can offer these rates in Australian dollars.
Get in touch to find out more.
Science Friction Live at the Melbourne Museum event series
ABC’s Science Friction Live at Melbourne Museum
Join ABC Science journalist Natasha Mitchell, presenter of ABC Radio National’s Science Friction, and special guests, for a series of hot button conversations about science, society and culture. Guaranteed to provoke!
From the #METOO movement challenging sexual harassment in science, the ethics of bringing extinct critters back from the dead, the urgent plight of science at school, to a super saucy session on the future of sex, pleasure and reproduction – prepare to get fired up.
First Thursday of the month, September to December. 6.30pm start
Free, but bookings are required.
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/whats-on/abc-s-science-friction-live/
Then in October:
ABC Radio National and the Melbourne Museum bring you a Science Friction Live event
#EPICFAIL: SCIENCE AT SCHOOL
“Maths is SO boring! “I was SO hopeless at science!” “My child loves science, but the classes are SO uninspiring!”
Sound familiar? Does school science have an image problem? Is it outdated and irrelevant?
Is there a right and a wrong way to approach science education?
Why are kids turning away when the careers of the future need STEM skills more than ever?
Help us wrestle with how to turn an #EPICFAIL into #EPICSUCCESS.
Students, parents, teachers, employers, and all – please come and have your say!
Thursday 4 October, 6.30pm start
Featuring:
- EDDIE WOO, international YouTube star of WooTube, high school mathematics teacher, and 2018 Local Hero in the Australian of the Year awards.
- BETTY ZHANG, Founder of the Victorian Student Science Squad and school neuroscience club, Brain Buzz. 2018 Graeme Clark Oration Youth Ambassador, and Year 12 student, Methodist Ladies College.
- And other guests.
It’s free, but you need to book.
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/whats-on/abc-s-science-friction-live/
This event will be recorded by the ABC.
Need to talk about your research but unsure how? Join our media training courses
- Melbourne: Tuesday 9 October, Wednesday 31 October
- Adelaide: Wednesday 14 November
- Sydney: Wednesday 3 October
- Perth: Friday 7 December
- Other cities on demand
Conveying the complexity of your research, your life’s work, into a 30-second grab for the media, or one-minute elevator pitch can be hard. The solution is to shape the essence of your science into a story.
Join our one-day media and communication training workshop and get some help.
We will help you find the right words to explain your research in a way that works for the media, as well as for government, industry and other stakeholders.
Two experienced science communicators will work with you to find the story in your research. Over the years we’ve helped Monash launch the world’s first printed jet engine, revealed the loss of half the coral on the Great Barrier Reef, helped CERN announce the Higgs boson, and revealed the link between CSIRO’s Wi-Fi patent and Aussie astronomy.
Working journalists from television, print and radio will join us over the course of the day to explain what makes news for them. And you’ll get the chance to practice being interviewed in front of a camera and on tape.
The day’s insights and training will help you feel more comfortable in dealing with journalists when media opportunities arise.