On March 17th 2025, Prof Clare Elwell gave an online workshop on science communication.
The recording of this webinar is on the members page for those to login and view.
Clare Elwell shared her tips and tricks on how to share science based on her experience in communicating her science to important funders, young students, and the general public. The 1.5-hour session was attended by 34 members of the Respect 4 Development network.
During her introduction, Prof Elwell stressed how science communication is key to help separating the facts from the myths. As a science communicator, it is essential to be aware of the different perspectives of the audience. People listening to your talk will have different point of views shaped by different lived experiences. We should keep reminding ourselves that science communication is not a 1-way process but a 2-way interaction between researchers and their audience.
With the message of ‘know your audience’ in mind, Prof Elwell continued to describe the different audiences that scientists may come across and how each of these would benefit from different kinds of preparation. One great piece of advice was to ‘Never underestimate intelligence, but never overestimate knowledge.’ Researchers should prepare their talk sufficiently and do their homework, so the audience doesn’t have to work too hard to understand the take home message of your talk. This suggests you should have different versions of your story suitable for different audiences. You might take inspiration from candidates at Dragon’s Den for talks to funders, from a school curriculum with topics recently learned about for talks to school students, and from public lectures or popular science books for talks to the general public. A good place to start is thinking about how you tell participants about your research. If you can hone your story and tell it to an 8-year-old school pupil, you can use this as a starting point in many other situations.
Prof Elwell shared some invaluable thoughts on working with the media. In print media, the approach to conveying information in news articles is different from science talks. The most important information about your research is typically mentioned in the sentences of the article whereas additional and less important details are in the following sentences. The press is always interested in research stories, particularly if they are new, surprising, quirky, inspiring, and good news. If you feel like your findings are newsworthy, you can contact your press office and give them the information about your upcoming published article. They will draft a press release which will need to be agreed upon by the researcher, collaborators, and funders before it is sent out to the press. Other media like podcasts, animated documentaries, and radio are also good approaches to talk about your findings. A word of caution though; once it’s out there, it’s out there forever. It is ok to say you don’t want to talk about things when asked. If you are asked by press to comment on research, it is ok to come back to them with a written response later to ensure you have a record of your comment.
At the end of the workshop, Prof Elwell reiterated to the role of science communication: separating the myths from the facts. As researchers, it is important for us to call out bad science when it is being reported. She also provided the attendees with resources and names of charities that are useful for science communication. The recording of the workshop is accessible via the membership page, in case you missed the session or want to look up some of the resources. Thank you to Prof Clare Elwell and our attendees!
Article written by Dr Rianne Haartsen
Biography
Professor Claire Ewell is a member of the R4N Scientific Advisory Board and a Professor of Medical Physics in the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at University College London (UCL), where she also serves as Vice Dean for Impact in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences. She is a founding member and Past President of the Society for Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, President of the London International Youth Science Forum, and Founder and Trustee of the charity Young Scientists for Africa (YoSA). Internationally recognised as a pioneer in the use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in clinical settings and functional studies, she has conducted research with both adults and infants — not only in standard lab settings but also in resource-limited environments, such as rural Gambia.
Beyond being an inspiring scientist and renowned researcher, Clare has developed exceptional science communication skills throughout her career. During her British Science Association Media Fellowship at The Financial Times in London, she honed her ability to effectively communicate science to non-scientific audiences. Her contributions to public engagement and science communication have been widely recognised, earning her several awards, such as the UCL Provost’s Public Engagement Award, the Medical Research Council Science Suffrage Award, the Inspirational Teacher Award at the UK Inspirational Awards for Women, the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Research Award. In July 2024 she delivered the UCL Festival of Engineering – Six Days to Change the World which attracted over 10,000 attendees of industry partners, policy makers, general public and school and community groups to engage with engineering innovations at UCL.
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