Communicating and disseminating
EU research
• Charlotte Haentzel
•
European Commission’s Representation in Sweden
Why communication matters
• Research is not useful if it is not communicated
• Explaining your research in a comprehensible
way is increasingly important
• If we do not make our efforts known, they will
have no impact
Why communication matters
• Internal communication is equally important!
• Interdisciplinary collaborations between
researchers in different fields, different countries
and between business and academia require
communication and networking skills
Horizon 2020
The biggest EU Research programme ever
• aims to
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Strengthen EU’s position in science
Strengthen industrial leadership in innovation
Address major societal concerns
And realise the ERA
Why research communication is
important to the EU
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Strengthen EU’s position in science
Strengthen industrial leadership in innovation
Address major societal concerns
And realise the ERA
• Corporate communications: H2020 is an integral
part of Europe 2020 – integrated communication
campaign in 2014
Horizon 2020 – communication and
dissemination requirements
• - H2020 has a number of new features as regards
communication and dissemination
• - Actions should have a comprehensive communication plan
to ensure a high visibility of the funded actions and help to
maximise the impact of results
• - New open access policy
• - Open Research Data Pilot
What needs to be disseminated?
• Rules for participation:
• Each participant that has received Union funding
shall disseminate the results it owns
• If possible, include a statement and/or visual
means to identify EU funding
Open Research Data Pilot Action
• To improve and maximise access to and re-use of
research data generated by projects
• For 2014-2015 limited to a number of areas
• Participation does not influence evaluation
process
Open access
- Under Horizon 2020, each beneficiary must
ensure open access to all peer-reviewed scientific
publications relating to its results.
- Beneficiaries must, at the very least, ensure that
their publications, if any, can be read online,
downloaded and printed.
Comprehensive communication plan
• - work in progress!
Why?
• External communication helps:
• Increasing the success rate of your proposal (provided you
have a good communication/dissemination plan
• Disseminating research results
• Increasing visibility and science awareness
• Achieving succesful integration with stakeholders
• Networking and marketing the consortium
• Bridging the gap between scientists and the public
• Making European reserach more attractive
Make your communication strategy
a success
• Define your goals and objectives
• Target your audience
• Choose your message
• Select the right medium and means
• Evaluate your efforts
What is good communication?
Work and coordinate at European level
Focus on results and background, not just methodology
Work with communcation and media professionals
Use exisiting relays and organisations
Try to make a difference – originality pays!
How to communicate with media
- Have something to say … that is real news… ...
and make it sound interesting
- Get to the point. Why should anyone care about
this?
- Think like a journalist: how can they make a story
out of this?
- Give them all they need. Don’t wait until they call
you looking for more
Innovative communication & challenges
- Social media(Twitter, Facebook, forums, podcasts, news
feeds, clips, webcasts, weblogs): how best to use them and
for which audience?
- Beyond “popularisation”: initiatives should aim at a 2-way
communication, not just providing information
- European fragmentation… and Europe has to compete with
the US big communication machineries!
External resources
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European Commission/DG RTD
CORDIS
AlphaGalileo
EurekAlert
ECSITE
EUSCEA
EurActiv
How we can help
• - Participant portal and helpdesk
• - Guidance and background material on
communication on the web
• - Activities and training
• - EC Representation
• - We can help share your research to a wider
audience!
THANK YOU!