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
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), Gwen de Wasseige (UCLouvain) and Bert Vercnocke talk about their successes and difficulties in getting scicomm initiatives off the ground.
03.00 PM
Coffee break
03.30 PM
Impact
Anne Land (Leiden University) will guide us through evidence-based and practical approaches for tracking engagement and demonstrating value to stakeholders. Steven Brandt (Hogeschool Gent) takes a critical approach and debunks a number of myths about impact.
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
Steven Brandt
Steven Brandt is a researcher at HOGENT's interdisciplinary Research Centre for Sustainable Organizations. He has led numerous impact research projects, developed training programs, and provided consultancy on topics such as Theory of Change, impact measurement, monitoring, and Social Return on Investment. Steven also teaches part-time at the Department of Social Work at HOGENT UASA.
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.
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.
Bert Vercnocke is a former physics professor turned passionate science communicator. Through interactive talks and shows—often with his guitar or live illustrations by his brother—he makes science engaging and accessible for all.
Sofie Verkest
Science communication researcher
