Lift-off!
Finding funds, friends and fans for your scicomm initiative
Our yearly meetup for scicomm professionals (and aspiring scicomm professionals). This year's theme? SciComm Lift-Off: Finding funds, friends, and fans to get your science communication initiative going.
We will focus on empowering science communicators to secure funding, build strong partnerships, and engage audiences effectively.
With the support of
Theme & topics
FUNDS
on different funding options and success stories
Securing funding is crucial for any scicomm initiative to succeed. Suzana Koelet will shine some light on how Innoviris is making a difference for scicomm in Brussels. Toon Verlinden will share his experience of acquiring funds to organize a large-scale science festival. Christophe De Jaeger will share his expertise in uniting artists and scientists, and in funding cross disciplinary collaborations and residencies through Gluon. We hope in this session to broaden your view on how to identify, apply for, and secure funding for your next project.
FRIENDS
on finding the right partners and building synergistic partnerships
You can't always go out on your own. Building strong, sustainable partnerships is key to scaling your SciComm efforts. Sofie Verkest will offer tips from research and practice on managing boundaries in partnerships, especially between science, media and governmental organizations. Seppe van Bladel researched how identity-based bias affects credibility and also has a thing or two to say about this topic. In addition, you will get the chance to find and meet new potential partners among the members of this event through our conversation-starter-powered opportunity for networking and matchmaking.
FANS
on measuring and proving impact
How do you know if your project reached is goals? In this session, we’ll dive into the strategies and tools used to measure and prove impact. Anne Land (Leiden University), co-founder of ImpactLab, will guide us through evidence-based and practical approaches for tracking engagement and demonstrating value to stakeholders.
LIFT OFF
on how to bring it all together
Stickydot will run a COALESCE clinic: a participatory session format to explore challenges that attendees face, and to encourage sharing and peer learning. We will also host a panel conversation with Mieke Sterken and Gwen de Wasseige about best practices.​
Schedule
10.00 AM
Welcome
Welcome to the 5th edition of BE SciComm
10.10 AM
Funding
Suzana Koelet (Innoviris), Toon Verlinden (Nerdland) & Christophe De Jaeger (Gluon)
11.30 AM
Interactive session
Share your challenges and experiences in a workshop run by StickyDot
12.15 PM
Lunch & networking
Network more productively with Conversation Starter
01.30 PM
Perspectives from research
Sofie Verkest (UGent) and Seppe van Bladel (UAntwerp) share what their research taught them about successful science communication.
02.15 PM
Perspectives from practice
Mieke Sterken (International Polar Foundation) and Gwen de Wasseige (UCLouvain) talk about their successes and difficulties in getting scicomm initiatives off the ground
03.00 PM
Coffee break
03.30 PM
"Impact"
Anne Land (Universiteit Utrecht) will guide us through evidence-based and practical approaches for tracking engagement and demonstrating value to stakeholders
04.45 PM
Close
We wrap up the main lessons of the day and look forward to 2025
05.00 PM
Closing drinks
To end the day, we head over to Brewdog for a drink
Meet the speakers
Christophe De Jaeger
Art historian and curator with a specialization in contemporary art and collaborative practices bridging art and research. He is founder and director of Gluon.
Gwen de Wasseige
Gwen de Wasseige, an astroparticle physicist and science communicator, leads neutrino research at UCLouvain with IceCube and KM3NeT. She has received awards for innovative outreach programs and represents Belgium in the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG).
Anne Land
Anne Land is assistant professor of science communication at Leiden University and co-founder of Impactlab. She will discuss the value of measuring the impact of science communication and how to lift off a good evaluation or impact measurement.
Seppe van Bladel
Seppe studied science communication from ethical, social-epistemological, and empirical-philosophical perspectives. Through interviews with underrepresented researchers in Flanders, he discovered how identity-based biases affect the credibility and impact of researchers.
Sofie Verkest
Science communication researcher
