A workshop bringing together communication experts from European particle accelerator facilities provided an opportunity to discuss how a renewed focus on competitiveness in Europe could impact scientific facilities and their communication output.
The accelerator communication and outreach (ACO) workshop took place over two half days in March this year and was held at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. It was organised as part of the EU-funded I.FAST project, which aims to enhance innovation in the particle accelerator community.
In total, 15 participants attended the workshop, representing facilities and institutions such as CNRS and Synchrotron Soleil in France, SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre in Poland, Elettra Sincrotrone in Italy, ALBA Synchrotron in Spain, European XFEL in Germany, ELI ERIC from Czech Republic and Hungary, the John Adams Institute and the Cockcroft Institute in the UK, as well as two representatives from CERN in Switzerland.
Europe’s research and innovation landscape is in a period of political development, moving towards a stronger focus on competitiveness and links to industry. This has been highlighted by recent Europe-wide reports, such as those by former Italian prime ministers Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, the so-called Heitor report, as well as calls for Europe’s next research and innovationI framework programme to boost European industrial competitiveness.
This represents a new challenge for the communication output of Europe’s major institutes in the accelerator community: How best to showcase the contribution of accelerator facilities and technologies to European competitiveness?
The workshop featured three expert talks based around this topic, as well as a presentation on the Lightsources.org consortium and how it helps build inter-institutional collaboration.
The first talk was given by Alexander Blūms, research counsellor at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Latvia to the European Union. His talk provided an introduction to the European R&I funding landscape, as well as details on why there is increased interest in competitiveness. He also spoke of ways that communication officers from accelerator facilities can engage in policy discussions held at a European level.
The second talk was given by Goda Naujokaitytė, an editor Science|Business, a new publication focusing on R&I policy. She spoke of the ways in which communication teams can work with journalists to build stories that showcase the competitiveness of accelerator facilities. She also spoke of the challenges that journalists and communication officers face when working together.
The third talk came from Arnaud Marsollier, head of Education, Communication and Outreach at CERN. He talked about CERN’s history in public communication, working with the media, and what to do in case of a crisis. He also spoke of the importance of cross-institutional cooperation and collaboration.
Following each talk, the attendees had the chance to discuss their points of view in closed-door sessions.
“This meeting demonstrated how crucial inter-institutional collaboration is — not only in research, but also in communication,” said Agnieszka Cudek, head of communication at the SOLARIS Centre, who participated in the workshop. “Together, we can more effectively tell the story of how accelerator technologies contribute to Europe’s innovation and industrial development.”
She particularly appreciated the opportunity to hear from EU policymakers, science policy journalists, and communication professionals from other facilities, saying “the presentations helped us better understand how our work can actively support Europe’s strategic goals in research and competitiveness.”
Ricardo Torres, scientific communications officer at the Cockroft Institute in the UK, said the event provided a “rare opportunity” to meet up with communication professionals from other accelerator facilities.
“I realised that most of us share the same challenges, and I enjoyed the chance to exchange ideas and practices,” he said.
The event also provided the chance for the participants to network and to get to know each other better. A tour of CERN’s Antimatter Factory offered the chance to learn about the work being done there and also to learn more about how CERN organises tours of its facilities.
This event follows two previous iterations organised under the ARIES project, I.FAST’s predecessor, that provided a broader opportunity to discuss communication strategies related to accelerator facilities and technologies.