Science Live

From intimate science cafes to massive science festivals, the public science events sector encompasses an enormous diversity of activity involving a huge range of practitioners and target audiences. As unique as each event is, public science events are all live, in-person programs, designed to engage the public with science in a social context that is at least as meaningful as the content and messages delivered. This activity is already taking place on a grand scale in both the US and UK, and having a direct impact in a variety of ways. The Science Live project is a first significant step forward in a long-term effort to widen access to the beneficial impacts of public science events, better understand these impacts and how they are produced, and uncover new opportunities for engaging society with science.

Researchers at Cornell University and the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol will work with science festival managers at MIT and the University of Cambridge to tackle several issues across the science events sectors in the UK and US. Ben Wiehe from the Science Festival Alliance office at the MIT Museum said:

“We know that millions of people are participating in live public science events every year in both the US and UK, but the contributions of these events are only just coming to be acknowledged as distinct, and there is little overall tracking of or advocacy for such activity. The organizers of these events are often not aware of each other’s efforts. We have a lot to learn from each other, but right now there is no straightforward way to share findings with the full range of event practitioners.”

The Science Live pilot study is funded by the Science Learning+ initiative of the Wellcome Trust, the US-based National Science Foundation, and the UK-based Economic and Social Research Council. It aims to lead to a longer term effort to establish a set of key facts related to live science activities, and use those facts to build a coherent narrative explaining the role that live events play in the larger science learning ecosystem.

Laura Fogg Rogers, Science Communication Research Fellow at UWE said:

“This is an exciting time to drill down and find out what works best in communicating research to benefit society. This consortium has access to some of the best networks of public science events, including science festival networks in the UK and US, grass-roots activities, and government level initiatives. The potential to make an impact on the researcher and practitioner landscape is massive.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Science Live is a collaborative project of the MIT Museum and the University of Cambridge, administered by the Science Festival Alliance office at the MIT Museum, and is led by Dr John Durant from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research partners include

Professor Bruce Lewenstein from Cornell University, Laura Fogg Rogers from University of the West of England, and Dr Wai Yi Feng from the University of Cambridge.

Science Live is funded through the Science Learning+ scheme, an international initiative established by the Wellcome Trust, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Noyce Foundation. The scheme was launched in April 2014 after a review of informal learning commissioned by the Wellcome Trust indicated a need for further research to be undertaken in this area.

The UK contact is Dane Comerford, from the University of Cambridge Public Engagement Team and the US contact is Ben Wiehe from the Science Festival Alliance office at the MIT Museum.

Dane Comerford

Public Engagement Manager, University of Cambridge

Phone: +44 (0)1223 764069

E-mail: dane.comerford@admin.cam.ac.uk

Ben Wiehe

Manager, Science Festival Alliance

Phone: +1 617.806.6369

E-mail: wiehe@mit.edu