What will this course cover?

Welcome to Science Communication and Public Engagement a European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Food online course, produced by Università degli Studi di Torino, and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

What will this course cover?

In recent decades, the importance of communicating science has increased both inside and outside of academia, and most universities have a dedicated staff of science communicators and public information officers.
They disseminate the results obtained by the university scientific staff and try to engage wide sectors of society, to increase the benefits of the research activities and the visibility of the institutions.

The goal of science communication has evolved in more recent times, moving away from the idea that the public had a deficit of understanding towards science, to an approach that includes aspects such as trust and participation.
Therefore, science communication is now faced with a new set of challenges:

• How to deliver the scientific messages in a time where there is so much messaging to compete with?

• What should be its goal – to transmit scientific knowledge or to engage with society and encourage its participation in the scientific process?

• How should scientific messages be framed?

In this course, we will touch on both theoretical and practical aspects of scientific communication. We will also reflect on the relationship between science and society and discuss the role that the community can have in determining the governance of the scientific process.

By mixing practical aspects, theoretical issues and practical examples of science communication we want to discuss some of the unique challenges of science communication. We hope that the next weeks of the course will be both interesting and useful to you.

We wish you a great week of learning!

The educators