Inspiring Australia: resources for communicating science

Effective science communicators and journalists understand the power of telling stories in accessible language.

These online and training resources can help you adopt a best practice approach to achieve results:

• use social media effectively to build networks and respond to issues
• present complex issues such as climate change clearly and succinctly
• deliver accurate and balanced information to enable informed decision making
• plan your events and activities to share knowledge and expertise

Building networks and sharing science

• Inspiring Australia state and territory managers can help you identify local and regional needs and provide up-to-date information about the state of science engagement.
• Watch short videos on how to use social media to promote science research: sciencemediasavvy.org/using-social-media.
• Learn how to communicate science messages quickly and effectively using social media and web tools in a two-day workshop: sciencemediaspace.com.au.
• Connect and share through ScienceAlert on Facebook for credible science content drawn from Australasian universities, science centres and agencies.
• Consider joining the national forum for Australian Science Communicators.

Training to communicate science

• Free science journalism training and resources: SCIJOURNO.com.au.
• Tips on accurate science reporting: www.smc.org.au/for-media/tips-on-reporting-science.
• Online training on how to pitch a story, deal with the media, use social media, and tips from media-savvy scientists: sciencemediasavvy.org/dealing-with-the-media.
• Media training for scientists in practical one-day workshops: scienceinpublic.com.au.
• Workshops for researchers and managers in science communication skills: econnect.com.au/workshops.
• One-day media spokesperson training for researchers beginning their careers: freshscience.org.au.

Research and data

• Find a science expert and get media alerts and briefs: scimex.org.
• Access data from peer-reviewed literature, reports, census polls and attitudinal surveys: www.sciencengage.com.au.
• Share and download science-related images, video and graphics to support science communications: scimex.org/multimedia-hub.

Planning science events and activities

• Visit the interactive database of survey data from the National Audit of Science Engagement Activity 2012. You can use the information to identify gaps, groups, regions, and collaborative opportunities in science communication: www.asc.asn.au/science-engagement-in-australia.
• Organise and promote a National Science Week event.

• Evaluate your activities to inform future event planning: Inspiring Australia Evaluation Resources [586KB PDF] [57KB DOCX]

Read more

We administer Inspiring Australia Programme grants and prizes.

Contact us

Email Inspiring.Australia@questacon.edu.au