How do scientists communicate the right way? To develop awareness and understanding of the strategic importance of communicating science, the University of Luxembourg has recently launched a new course “Science Communication Skills” for doctoral candidates.
How do scientists communicate the right way? To develop awareness and understanding of the strategic importance of communicating science, the University of Luxembourg has recently launched a new course “Science Communication Skills” for doctoral candidates.
This course has been developed within the framework of the Doctoral Education in Science Communication project (DESCOM) to educate young scientists in how to best communicate science to a non-specialised audience. “We believe that science communication skills are an ever more important skill”, says Prof. Serge Haan, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication (FSTC). “But not all researchers feel comfortable doing this. We hope to change this through the course.”
This introductory course is held by Dirk Hans, a long-term science journalist and science communicator. Together with several other experts in the field, he will give the doctoral candidates an understanding of basic concepts in science communication and explain the organisational structures involved.
The course is a new offer within the Transferable Skills Training, a set of common courses offered to PhD students to increase their skills in fields that are not directly related to their research, but can be used during their doctoral period and are important for their future career.
DESCOM has been launched in 2018 with the support of the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and the Doctoral School of Science and Engineering (DSSE). The project aims to support interactions between academia and the public by providing different modes of training in science communication.