First COALESCE co-creation workshop held in Granada

In October 2023, COALESCE held its first public co-creation workshop in Granada, under the aegis of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Years of Skills.

COALESCE is building the European Competence Centre for Science Communication. But we cannot do this in isolation. In particular, it is vital that we understand the specific needs of the many actors on the science-communication stage, from institutional communicators to science journalists to informal communicators and press officers.

Towards this end, COALESCE held its first public co-creation workshop in October 2023, in Granada, under the aegis of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Years of Skills, and on the eve of the Congress on Social Communication of Science. The Congress is held every two years, bringing together researchers and science communicators from across Iberia and Latin-America.

Around 30 participants – including professional science communicators at research centres and universities, science-communication researchers, science journalists and those working at science museums – attended the event, at the Zaidín Experimental Station. Most were in Granada to attend the Congress, but some travelled all the way from Eastern Europe specifically for the COALESCE workshop, and in particular to contribute to the development of the network of national and regional hubs that COALESCE will establish. Over two hours, COALESCE partners and the participants discussed their varying needs and how the Competence Centre might fulfil them.

“There are lots of expectations and wonderful ideas although we are also conscious about our resources as a project,” adds Joana Magalhães, who was involved in organising the workshop, “but there was a good match between their expectations and needs and what we have set out to build.”

Participants were excited about the proposed match-making tool, to bring communicators and journalists together with subject experts in academia. They were also keen to learn about the challenges presented to their professions with advances in AI technology, and sought training on how best to use new tools now available to them.

The success of this first workshop has set the stage for future co-creation events COALESCE will organise in 2024 and beyond.