ABC cadetships, talking with policy makers, prizes and the AAAS

Bulletins, Science stakeholder bulletins

Science is a key driver of economic and cultural change. But our leaders seem to have forgotten that in 2014. So we need a big push in 2015.

Here in my last note for the year are a few of the tools you can use in 2015 to promote Australian science to Australians and to international audiences.

Look out for the International Year of Light in Sydney on New Year’s Eve, it’s the start of a year promoting all things light. Light in Winter, VIVID, Enlighten and many other cultural events are joining the science world in celebrating the Year.

Science Meets Policymakers in February and Science Meets Parliament in March will help the science world engage with audiences critical to the health of Australian science.

Our Stories of Australian Science 2015 will be published in April and distributed at the World Conferences of Science Journalists in Korea.

And Stories of Australian Light will be published later in the year highlighting optics, astronomy, solar, light sources and more.

The ABC and UNSW are offering a cadetship program for scientists to work with the ABC’s Radio National as a part of their Top 5 under 40 program.

The Foundation for Young Australians is offering eight ‘Young Social Pioneers’ the opportunity to develop ideas on how to improve the uptake of STEM in Australia.

The Economist, Guardian, BBC News, Scientific American, even the Sun and the Mail. We hope to see science reporters from these and many other publications at our annual dinner at the AAAS for science journalists – this year in San Jose. We’re keen to hear of Aussie scientists attending and we’re seeking support for this our fourth AAAS media dinner.

We’ll offer media and communication training in every State and Territory – if you can guarantee six participants we can build a course around them.

And finally, the prizes and competitions – we’ll let you know in January about dates for the Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, L’Oréal For Women in Science Fellowships, the Stem Cell Foundation’s Metcalf Prizes, The Eurekas, FameLab and our own Fresh Science which we’re bringing back in 2015.

More on all of these below.

It’s the continuing support of our clients that enables us to keep you briefed in these bulletins. Thank you in particular to our long standing clients and colleagues at Questacon/Industry, L’Oreal, Nature, Monash, Melbourne, UNSW, AIMS, MCEC, EMBL Australia, the AIP, the Australian Museum and the Stem Cell Foundation.

The small business that Sarah and I established a decade ago has developed with you. We now have a team of twelve people working on a wide range of projects in Australia and overseas.

In 2015 we’ll further develop our services to train, mentor, plan and deliver media and communication strategies for science. Our fees start from $800 for training and $3,000 for communication strategies.

Finally, Laura Boland leaves us this week to take up an exciting role at the Victorian EPA. She’s made a big contribution to Science in Public over the past two years. In January we will welcome Megan Girdler and Lydia Hales to the team.

We close Friday afternoon and reopen on 5 January.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Kind regards,

Niall

 

2015 is the International Year of Light

There’s a direct connection between this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics and the shelves of LED replacement lamps at your local Bunnings.

Thanks to the invention of blue LEDs the 21st Century will be lit by LEDs lasting almost a lifetime and using a small fraction of the power of old-school incandescent and fluorescent lights.

2015 is the International Year of Light, and it will kick off in Australia with the New Year’s Fireworks in Sydney. The Year will see cultural events like VIVID, Enlighten, Light in Winter join forces with the science world to celebrate all things light from optics to astronomy to art and architecture.

There will also be a range of educational material developed through partnerships including CSIRO, Universities, Questacon, National Science Week, and the Australian Science Teachers Association.

More on all these events and how you can get involved at: http://light2015.org.au or on Twitter @LightYearAU and #IYL2015

We’re helping to promote the Year and we’re also looking for sponsors…

Want to meet parliament and policymakers in Canberra?

Science & Technology Australia will run Science Meets Policymakers and Science Meets Parliament in the first quarter of 2015.

Science meets Policymakers is open to all – it’s a one day conference bringing scientists and policy-makers together to achieve better public policy outcomes. Science meets Policymakers is on Wednesday 11 February 2015. More at: http://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/focus-on/science-meets-policymakers-3

Science meets Parliament gives members of the science community the opportunity to connect with parliamentarians, and is tentatively scheduled for 24 and 25 March 2015. More at: http://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/science-meets-parliament

Stories of Australian Science – tell us yours

We are gathering stories for our next showcase of Australian science—Stories of Australian Science 2015. We celebrate the best of Australian science from in this publication, which is available in printed copy and online.

You can see last year’s stories at: www.scienceinpublic.com/stories

Each story is roughly 250 words long, and is accompanied by an image. We write the stories for you: all you need to do is tell us what you’d like to include in the publication, and give us the scientist’s contact details.

We’ll only publish text you (and/or your scientist) have approved, and we’ll either use an image you supply (with appropriate credit) or an appropriate stock photo. Each story includes the scientist’s or representative’s contact details to enable interested people to follow up with your organisation. Costs start from $1,200 a story.

You can view stories online, or download the pdf. You can search the storybooks by state, organisation or field of science, and we can also feed stories to your website.

If you’re interested in participating in Stories of Australian Science 2015, drop me an email or give me a call.

Top 5 under 40 – science cadetships with the ABC

ABC and UNSW are looking for young scientists with a passion for communicating their research

“Top 5 under 40 is a new partnership between the ABC and the University of NSW who are teaming up to offer science communication training, and cadetships with Radio National to our “next big things” in science.”

Applications are now open for outstanding early-career researchers under the age of 40 who are working in Australian universities and research institutions across science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical research.

The 10 applicants with the most innovative ideas will be selected for a two-day workshop at RN in February 2015. Working with RN’s specialist producers and science communicators, they will develop their program ideas and pitch to a panel of judges comprising Robyn Williams, presenter of RN’s The Science Show, and Professors Fiona Stanley (UWA), Lesley Hughes (Macquarie) and Merlin Crossley (UNSW).

The top five winners will undertake a 10-day media program as ‘Scientists in Residence’ at RN.

Applications are now open and close Friday 16 January 2015 (midnight AEDT)

More at: www.unsw.edu.au/top5under40

Opportunities for ‘Young Social Pioneers’

The Foundation for Young Australians is offering eight ‘Young Social Pioneers’ the opportunity to develop ideas on how to improve the uptake of science and technology in Australia. The Young Social Pioneers (YSP) program supports Australia’s best and brightest emerging social entrepreneurs and innovators, aged 18-29.

The program amplifies their social change purpose, builds networks of support and develops their business skills and capabilities to drive successful purpose-driven ventures.

The program focuses on three key areas that are critical to running a successful venture:

  • having a clear social venture vision and purpose
  • establishing networks that provide resources and support
  • developing enterprise and leadership skills to improve operational sustainability.

More at: www.fya.org.au/inside-fya/initiatives/young-social-pioneers

Also next year, the Federation is running a national ideas challenge for young Australian’s— it’s an opportunity to back young Australians and support their ideas for entrepreneurship and innovation.

More about 1,000 ideas for a better Australia

Your stories and the world’s leading science journos at AAAS, San Jose, February

In February hundreds of the world’s science journalists converge on the AAAS – the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

We take advantage of this annual gathering by inviting 50 of these leading journalists to join us for dinner on the last night. Our guests at the last dinner included the science editors of The Economist, BBC TV News, the Mail, Sun, writers from Nature, PBS Nova, Science and other publications, many of the board of the World Federation of Science Journalists, as well as our own Robyn Williams from the ABC.

If your organisation has genuinely international stories that you want to put in front of a global audience then talk to me. If you have staff going to the AAAS then we’d like to invite them too. Contact me in January for costs and details.

The Prizes

If you’re getting this bulletin, you will hear about the opening of these prizes in the new year – but if you have a colleague, supervisor, student, or friend you think might be interested they can sign up to my updates here.

You can also view the dates for all the Australian Prizes we know of in our science prizes calendar 

In the meantime, here are all the links to their websites in case you just want to have a browse:

Media training dates for 2015

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

The solution is to capture the essence of your story and work out what it needs to work for TV, print, radio and Twitter. Our forums and courses help scientists do just that.

We run forums for 20 to 500 people and courses for six to 12 people.

Both involve working journalists from print, TV and radio who will help you understand what science needs to turn it into news.

We currently have courses planned for:

  • Melbourne: Wednesday 28 January, Tuesday 3 March, Tuesday 14 April and Wednesday 3 June.
  • Canberra: Thursday 9 April
  • Perth: Monday 20 April
  • Sydney: Wednesday 22 April
  • Adelaide: Friday 1 May

We can also hold courses in other locations or on other dates where a local host can guarantee six people.

More details at www.scienceinpublic.com/training

Science in Public

Communication audits, 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.