Research Communication

The field of science communication encompasses both the communication of research results within the scientific community and, in particular, to the public. Especially in the latter case, it is not always easy to decide when and how scientific results should be communicated. For example, publishing results that are still preliminary or exaggerating them can undermine trust in science or communicating them via the wrong media can miss the core target group.

Wissenschaft im Dialog has therefore published guidelines for good science PR, including a checklist, together with the German Association of University Communication. The Alliance of Science Organizations has also formulated 10 recommendations for action on science communication [in german].

The portal Wissenschaftskommunikation.de provides news, tools and resources on the topic. The platform Tierversuche verstehen [in german] offers support in the area of communicating animal experiments.

In DFG Collaborative Research Centers, science communication measures can be funded either as part of the central administration project or as separate sub-projects.