Science in Public Conference 2015: Research, Practice, Impact

Running for over 10 years, the Science in Public conference and network bring together researchers and practitioners in science communication and public engagement from across the UK and around the world.

The 2015 Science in Public conference took place 9-10 July and welcomed around 80 researchers and practitioners in science communication and public engagement, from PhD students to professors, for two days of intense discussion and debate in four workshops and 35 individual presentations.

Participants came from around the world, including speakers from Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, UK and the USA.

The keynote speaker, Professor Maja Horst of the University of Copenhagen, looked at issues of culture and identity in science communication and Paul Manners, from the UK National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, closed the conference with personal reflections on what it means to be a science communicator.

After the conference, we put together a commentary for the Journal of Science Communication (JCom); we asked a group of presenters from the conference to examine the concept of ‘impact’ from a variety of viewpoints and perspectives.

PCST doctoral summer school

Before the conference, we were privileged to host the annual international Doctoral Summer School of the Public Communication of Science and Technology Network, organised by academics at UWE, Dublin City University, University of Delft and University College London. Many of the summer school participants also presented papers at the conference.

Conference organisers

• Ann Grand
• Laura Fogg Rogers
• Margarida Sardo
• Jane Wooster