Presenting the Global Plant Council. Bringing plant science closer to society by helping plant scientists increase the impact of their research
Author: Isabel Mendoza-Poudereux – Universidad de Valencia, Spain
Co-authors:
- Bill Davies – Lancaster University, United Kingdom
- Ros Gleadow – Monash University, Australia
- Barry Pogson – Australian National University, Australia
Plant sciences have a key role to play as society seeks to address a growing suite of environmental and social challenges, from food security to mental health and conservation. The Global Plant Council (GPC) is a vibrant community of plant scientists that provides a platform for networking and collaboration. Currently, it assembles 30 member organizations across the globe, representing over 50,000 plant specialists. The aim of the GPC is to promote plant science across borders, supporting those directly involved in research, but also in education and training, while increasing awareness of the key role of plant research in both science and society.
By acting as a central plant science hub, the GPC aims to enhance and develop coordination and communication mechanisms among GPC Member Organizations and their stakeholders. In order to do this, we have rolled out a new social media and communication strategy to engage with different audiences. Currently (December 2020) our online presence reaches over 24.000 followers through its website and social media accounts.
To nurture up and coming plant scientists, GPC recently established an Early Career Researcher (ECR) International Network, the ECRi, a collection of activities addressed to help the plant science ECRs with 4 essential components of their jobs: future job hunting, grant funding, dissemination of research results and networking. In its first year of existence, the ECRi Facebook group has gathered over 3.500 members. Besides Facebook, GPC is employing other social media strategies, such as a monthly Twitterstorm of job ads and a LinkedIn group.
In our visual presentation we will give insight into our online strategy, and how this has enabled us to grow from 9.500 to 24.000 followers in 26 months and how this new reach is helping us to implement our general and ECRi objectives and continue to grow into the future.
The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.
Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation