Researchers in 29 Swedish cities shared their passion for research and science at this year’s European Researchers’ Night celebrations. The annual Europe-wide science festival, in 2018 held on 28 & 29 September, featured activities in over 370 cities in Europe.
Miljövänliga och återvinningsbara produkter gjorda på rester från industrin, som hjälmar, tyg och genomskinligt trä? Det låter kanske som science fiction, men är några av de nya skogsbaserade produkter som utvecklas just nu i Sverige och Finland och som i framtiden kan komma att ersätta många av de fossilbaserade material vi använder i dag. Kanske är cellulosa den nya plasten?
Interest in life sciences research is generally high among citizens. The three most accepted purposes of using genome editing are related to the medical field. These are results from a survey and a report on ”Public attitudes to life sciences research in six European countries” conducted by VA in Sweden and CEITEC in the Czech Republic as part of the ORION Open Science project.
When research and scientific methods are increasingly being questioned, science communication needs to become keener. Evidence-based science communication is one way of doing this.
The current draft of the EU’s next framework programme for research and innovation is not addressing the needs to involve and engage citizens and civil society in research and innovation enough. VA has therefore encouraged the Swedish government and Swedish members of the European Parliament to act to make Horizon Europe a more citizen-oriented programme.
The 8th Living Knowledge conference was held in Budapest from 30 May to 1 June. Two VA colleagues, Helen Garrison and Martin Bergman, joined other SciShops partners to present some of the project’s work so far and gain inspiration from others in the Living Knowledge network.
New Zealand was the host of the 15th global PCST science communication conference that took place in April 2018. Two VA colleagues travelled to the coastal city of Dunedin to present some of VA’s work in citizen science, scientific literacy and public engagement. The conference gathered around 400 delegates from over 40 countries to discuss the latest practices in the diverse and growing field of science communication.
Awareness of science shops and community-based participatory research is much higher in Western Europe, than in other parts of Europe. Researchers are more likely to be familiar with these concepts than community organisations, the main beneficiaries, too. These are some of the results of a survey conducted by SciShops, a new Horizon 2020 project promoting the growth of science shops and community-based research in Europe. VA is a partner in SciShops and was responsible for conducting the survey.
