Boosting the Science Communication Ecosystem in Europe

In a current context of polarisation, misinformation and constant polycrisis, it is more critical than ever to support a robust science-communication (scicomm) ecosystem, which can boost EU’s competitive excellence and its top talent, whilst creating a trustworthy ecosystem for citizens’ meaningful involvement. Despite the pivotal role that scicomm plays in society, there remain barriers at the individual, institutional and structural levels to achieving its full potential. To address these barriers, the COALESCE consortium – which has established the European Competence Centre for Science Communication – has published a series of recommendations aimed at multiple stakeholders, including funders and policymakers at different governance levels.

The recommendations are the result of consolidating key findings from eight SwafS-19 projects, funded under Horizon 2020, that served as the predecessors of COALESCE, and are consistent with those published by international bodies such as Science Europe and OECD.

Previous research has shown that various societal actors are highly motivated to participate in diverse forms of science communication. These include the role that science communication plays in increasing scientific literacy and engaging citizens in science. However, the barriers to effective science communication range from poor institutional support and structural funding to limited professional recognition and lack of defined career paths.

The COALESCE consortium’s recommendations are:

1. Professionalise scicomm strengthening EU-wide institutional support
2. Integrate scicomm, public engagement and societal impact in research portfolios
3. Support career pathways in public R&I organisations and independent professionals in scicomm and journalism
4. Establish scicomm infrastructures, training, guidelines and resources
5. Strengthen the open science policy and make open data the rule for every institution
6. Facilitate collaboration between researchers and policymakers
7. Facilitate researchers-citizens dialogue
8. Support collaboration between researchers and journalists and across sectors
9. Support fact-checking and reliable scientific information
10. Encourage scicomm and journalism knowledge valorisation towards society and the market

By addressing barriers to effective science communication, funders, policymakers and decision-makers can support creating an ecosystem where science communication thrives, contributing to societal resilience, innovation and trust in science.

This policy brief represents a first analysis on current reports/recommendations on science-communication policies and will feed a mutual-learning exercise in science communication run by COALESCE. The exercise will be open to EU member states and details will be announced soon.