Author: Daniela Antonio – CERN, France

Across different fields of science, there are moments when key decisions are expected to be taken. For particle physics today, these decisions relate to the next big colliders. They involve experts from various fields, all of whom are necessary to the functioning of a particle accelerator. Decisions of this scope often result from a process involving multiple additional stakeholders, both specialised and not: policy makers, media, industry, and even general audiences like the neighbouring community.

To make informed decisions, these key audiences must understand the work done in research institutes and laboratories, so that science continues to find the support and talent it needs to develop. Scientific communication can also inform other scientists of one’s activities, overcoming the barriers that separate different disciplinary fields. And communicating outside a technologically rich field allows different experts to understand the complexity of certain developments, which might result in mutually beneficial collaborations with industry and facilitate the societal impact of fundamental research.

In addition, at a time when fundamental research must prove its impact, research institutions and laboratories have finite and limited resources to allocate to communication and outreach. The science communication officers” creativity shines in these circumstances, as they communicate across several channels for a broad field of stakeholders and audiences.

To answer our question, we review the 101 of communication and our strategy to highlight CERN’s technology and its applications beyond particle physics. We take a look at our community engagement newsletters”, content creation, entrepreneurship events, workshops and networking activities as projects with specific goals, audiences, channels and evaluation methods. We share our learnings in a multi-stakeholder, multi-channel approach, aiming to characterise a generation of communication officers, who have broad expertise and a data-driven approach to the creative process.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Insight talk
Theme: Technology