SScience communication or SciCom is the practice of communicating findings in science to all potential stakeholders in order to improve its impact on society as well as scientific practices. These stakeholders include industry, government, social organizations, start-ups, but most importantly, the taxpayer, who finances scientific research and should be the ultimate beneficiary of the socio-economic goods that can be derived from techno-scientific efforts.
The government contributes to SciCom by supporting museums, festivals and multimedia shows etc. However, due to issues of funding and state capacity mismatch Between the activities run by the government and its engagement with the society.
To fill this gap, SciCom professionals in India have developed a rich set of activities, be it interpreting science through performing arts bharatanatyam, festivalsStreet performance, busking, science team (Science Parade), Movies and curated exhibit,
The need for SciCom is self-evident – it contributes to building a scientific temper in society, creates space for industry and non-governmental organizations to adopt relevant scientific practices, and demonstrates that science can be funded on a large scale. Why it needs to be nurtured, and finally, opens the door for scientists to understand local problems.
However, a scalable impact is still far from the community. For example, according to 3M survey state of science 2022, a large number of Indians show high skepticism (76 per cent respondents) about science. SciCom Education in Indian Universities interval Far behind other contemporary universities globally due to paucity of funds and expert trainers who are not available due to absence of institutional training in the subject. To achieve a scalable impact in India, two interventions will be necessary: commercialization and institutionalization.
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internal work
From the current state of neonatal disorders, the natural next step for the psych community is to ‘professionalise’. This means that the community must define its work as a profession—different roles in psycom, methods of working, best practices, criteria, and standards of evaluation. For example, sub-disciplines of SciCom such as science writing, science journalism, and science history should be defined and the nuances of their differences recognized.
This would open up a lot of questions, like, what are the standards for good science writing or journalism? How should the work of Sycom be evaluated? How should psycom professionals work with other stakeholders such as scientists, institutions, industry, government and the public? For example, the monolithic profession of software/product design has provided various roles such as product manager, frontend engineer, and backend engineer. The profession also has a job description for the roles, methodologies and framework for carrying out the work and detailed assessment standards.
Such definitions will help improve the practice of SciCom in India, give higher aspirations to the community and enable them to evaluate their collective work. It will also provide the community with a common vocabulary to talk within itself and with other stakeholders, leading to better outcomes. It will also help standardize SciCom training and programs, identify deficiencies, and intervene.
A word of caution: the suggestion of ‘commercialization’ is not meant to create an ‘elite’ community that uses norms as a way to close doors but rather should open doors – a college student who is a science YouTuber. should be welcomed and provided with the tools to evaluate his or her work and enhance practice. And the community should not look down upon other mass channels like OTT, or others, but build bridges to cooperate.
An example of such intervention is seen in Australia. Produce of the Australian Science Communicators (ASC). The ASC was formed in 1994 by self-organization of the SciCom community that worked in silos. The formation of the ASC led to interventions that combined the efforts of psycom professionals to a greater impact such as the provision of university courses and training for an expanded pool of workers, collaboration with academia and industry through specialized research centers and programs. increased cooperation with, and greater relations with, politicians. , among others.
The process of commercialization is an internal one. Indian SciCom professionals need to meet from time to time, share methods, learnings and results and put together resources that do not exist in India. While informal attempts to introduce this have taken place in recent times under the aegis of the annual India Science Festival organized by FAST India, SciCom professionals perhaps need to go a step further. They should form a formal society governed by themselves with the objective of ensuring ethical practices in the profession in India.
It will gradually morph into norms, best practices and assessment methods informed by the lived experience of emerging SciCom professionals and their interactions within their ecosystem. And it will also have a multiplier effect on their impact and give them a voice in the larger science and technology ecosystem.
There are many examples from other communities such as the scientists themselves in communities such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Indian National Academy of Science (AAAS) arrange. INSA), among others. Or, the industry that has organized itself into communities such as SAE International, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The way for such a society or association is to put together clear objectives and principles, define governance structures, and start a motivated startup team.
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way to institutionalize
The government and institutions must ensure that the psycom community has the necessary institutional legitimacy. The government has clearly expressed the importance of a variety of guidelines and schemes such as SciCom scientific social responsibility (SSR), and Inspire, which is a welcome move.
However, most of these initiatives put the onus of science communication on the scientist, without explicitly recognizing the role of the SciCom professional. Scientist is a definite stakeholder, but such functions cannot be performed by him alone. The first thing for the government is to institutionally recognize SciCom professionals and provide them with the right tools and resources to do their job.
One of the major tools is the SciCom Offices at the Institute, which are similar to other domains such as Industry Liaison and Research Management. The government should make plans for providing seed funding for such offices and for fellowship programs to keep SciCom officers in institutions. Competitive funding should be made available to SciCom executives, both at and outside the institutions, for background research, activities and job evaluations.
Finally, the government can provide the right incentives to make SciCom work by including institutions in ranking metrics such as the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
At the institutional level, some of the top science institutes in India such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TiFR) have already taken steps to develop separate SciCom offices. But many top institutes either do not have a separate SciCom office or have limited understanding of the practice.
Existing SciCom offices in India are generally small with just one to two people and are often reduced to a PR company or association with subsidiary institutional websites. Our top institutes need proper SciCom offices with stated goals and objectives and a well-oiled team to meet these objectives.
In addition, higher education institutions need to provide PSICOM training programs. The training may be offered as an elective with a science, writing, or journalism degree, eventually leading to an applied postgraduate specialization in SciCom.
Fellowships or apprenticeships, which involve training SciCom professionals in science research environments, such as in laboratories or by shadowing a scientist, will be useful in ensuring hands-on learning.
We need to turbocharge science communication in India. The foundation is here, it just needs the spark.
Varun Agarwal is the co-founder of the Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology. Thoughts are personal.