Many organisations offer communication or media training to the research community. If you want to improve your existing communication skills with public audiences; face-to-face, via the media or using the web to promote your research, please contact Revealing Research to see what training opportunities we can offer you.
Below is a list of current training offered by Generic Skills Dundee and other organisations including research councils and societies.
A good summary of training opportunities can be found on National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement web site.
| Organisation | Course Title | Course Details |
|---|---|---|
| Generic Skills Dundee | Science Communication to Non-Specialists Part 1 | This excellent two-day course is run by Tom Pringle (a.k.a Braniac's Dr. Bunhead) and freelance journalist Stuart Blackman. It focuses on writing press releases, headlines, dealing with the press and radio interviews. In 2010 the course will run on 10/11th November. You can apply for a place at the Organisational and Professional Development web site. |
| Dundee Science Centre | Create and Inspire | This one-day course is run by Dundee Science Centre in partnership with Revealing Research. Create and Inspire gives you the opportunity to be immersed in the science centre for a day, and discover our ideas, methods and philosophy. In 2010 the course will run on Wednesday 27th October and Wednesday 24th November. You can see more details at Dundee Science Centre web site. To request a place please contact us at RevealingResearch@dundee.ac.uk. |
| Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) | Media Training | The AHRC frequently runs free one-day media training workshops for AHRC funded researchers, often in Bristol or Central London. NB There isn't a permanent web page on the AHRC web site but details can be found in the News and Events section of the AHRC site. |
| British Science Association | Media Fellowships | These fellowships offer training in both broadcast and published media organisations. Previous hosts have included BBC, the Guardian etc. To find out more visit the British Science Association web site. See our ‘Media Fellowship’ section on this page for more information |
| The Royal Society | Communication Skills Training | This one day course equips scientists with the skills to communicate their work on a non-technical level, clearly and confidently to a wide range of audiences. Places are open to all science researchers and are free to Royal Society fellow. To find out more visit the Royal Society's web site. |
| Institute of Physics | Outreach workshops | The institute of physics offers two communication and public engagement training courses throughout the year: one for beginners and one for researchers with some public engagement experience. The workshops are open to Institute members and are free. Visit the Institute of Physics web site to find out more. |
| NESTA | Scottish Crucible | The scheme enables 30 talented researchers from a variety of disciplines to come together to explore and expand their creative capacity and problem-solving potential in ways they may never have considered before. Visit the Scottish Crucible web site to find out more. |
| University of the West of England | Science Communication Masterclass | UWE's Science Communication Masterclass is an intensive course created to provide professional development in science communication. The 3-day course usually takes place in October each year. Visit the University of the West of England Science Communication Unit web site to find out more. |
Four research councils provide their own one or two day media training courses. More details can be found on the AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC and NERC web sites.
Both STFC and EPSRC provide funding and/or bursaries towards attending media training.
If you are a researcher working in a science area then the British Science Association has a good summary of media training and fellowships for scientists on its own web site.
The AHRC runs a Knowledge Transfer Fellowship scheme. KT Fellows may work either on their own or as part of an academic team and bring tangible benefits to non-academic organisations through a process of knowledge exchange. These benefits may be economic, social or cultural in nature.
Other research councils and organisations also run their own media fellowships;
The Wellcome Trust offers Science Media Studentships to two practising biomedical scientists to undertake a postgraduate qualification in Science Media Production at Imperial College London. Each studentship lasts 18 months and will include a prearranged six-month work placement.