A vision for Science and Society

Thanks to UKRC and Nature for organising an interesting, innovative and inspiring event on Nature’s island in Second Life to help develop their response to this consultation.
The participants walked, flew and teleported into breakout groups to discuss the gender perspective on science careers, teaching and research.
UKRC’s real-world event to discuss the consultation is on 30 [...]

Science Minister Ian Pearson MP invites you to make your mark on the Science and Society consultation

If time flies by when you are enjoying yourself, it seems to positively accelerate when you conduct a public consultation.
This July I launched ‘A Vision for Science and Society’ - an invitation to scientists, educators, employers, the media, [...]

Are there audiences and channels of communication that current science and society work has overlooked? Join Science Minister Ian Pearson, Professor Jim Al-Khalili and other specialists in an interactive workshop to explore ways in which the public engagement, confidence and skills themes in the current Science and Society consultation could be widened to include other [...]

Guest post: Ruth Wilson, UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
“The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology is holding a one hour session to discuss A Vision for Science and Society in the virtual world Second Life.
You may already be a member of Second Life – or you [...]

On 30th August Nature Networks in collaboration with the Royal Institution are hosting the inaugural science blogging conference: Science Blogging 2008 London. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills is delighted to be suporting this event which aims to bring together science bloggers from around the world to discuss the pressing issues in science, science [...]

How do we capture emerging issues effectively and feed into the communication and engagement process?

It’s a very difficult task. But it’s the challenge of all types of journalists, not just science communicators, to try to determine what is useful to, and desired by, their readers. We have advantages, though: usually, our sources are eager to [...]

At the launch at Thinktank in Birmingham on the 18th July, attendees were shown a short introductory video featuring a number of leading scientists, broadcasters and policy makers:

What’s your view? Join the debate in the comments here, via our response form, Facebook or your own blog or website.

Lord Martin Rees, Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University, Astronomer Royal and President of Royal Society gives his thoughts on two of the questions raised by the consultation:

What’s your view? Join the debate in the comments here, via our response form, Facebook or your own blog or website.

How should high quality engagement be recognised and rewarded?

High quality schemes should be rewarded simply by securing on-going funding. So many fantastic projects fall by the wayside in favour of ‘pilot’ schemes that stand little chance of sticking around in the long term. It seems we have a preference for the ‘new’ over the ‘tried [...]

How can we develop the scientific literacy of the science, policy and public communities?

I think the key to improving science literacy is developing the education system so there isn’t such a huge gulf between people who study science and people who don’t. Science courses need to incorporate elements which help future scientists develop their communication [...]