Throughout the project we have developed strong working relationships between IISER, UWE, Nature Springer, SJAI and ABSW. This has ensured both the strategic input from our industry partners, but also enabled the team to develop rich resources that will support our curriculum needs.

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The methodology for the project has been collaborative not only conceptually, but physically as well with multiple movements and exchanges. Each movement of core project team and collaborators has stirred institutional and contextual landscapes creating a dynamic ecosystemic for the dialogues on science communication.  

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The learnings have been cross-border, cross-context and experiential for everyone involved, trying to tap into as many lived nuances as possible. The Institutes IISER Pune and UWE Bristol, and project partners in both countries have hosted dialogues with the science writers and journalist communities stirring thoughts, ideas, synergies and partnerships for Exploring SciComm.

 

Nature India and SJAI members mentored India student fellows directly, upskilling them in critical and creative skills. The Science for Environment Policy team mentored UK student, developing science writing skills. Nature India, SJAI and ABSW also participated in workshops and in podcast production which built learning resources and material for the scicomm courses at IISER and UWE.

 

Industry experts participated in podcasts, sharing practical experience in a range of areas, from fact checking, through to on the ground ‘fixing’ for documentary production. These practical insights could not easily be brought into academic curricula through any other means.

Similarly, the SJAI, is a young and evolving network, and by collaborating on this project it is expected that the epistemology, workforce and industry practices will shape and be shaped by DEI and value-centric science communication practices.

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This project is experimental in nature and will inform our future approach towards developing science communication training. It has already made us think differently about the way we teach, particularly how we can creatively use podcasts in teaching and learning.

 

Through the roundtables both with journalists and students, we also recognised the need to have specific interventions that go beyond symbolic gestures. Further, the way we have worked on this project, both collaboratively with industry and individual journalists, and across HEIs internationally, has enabled us to develop our ideas about science communication pedagogy that builds on both research and industry experience.

 

The project has also pushed us to extend areas of research and teaching practice, the benefits of which are likely to emerge in the coming years.