News item | 12-04-2023 | 11:15
Minister Dijkgraaf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) announces that the national expertise center for science and society will be set up. Last year, he announced that he would release €10 million to set up a center for more effective science communication and thereby reduce the distance between science and society. Quartermasters Prof. dr. ir. Ionica Smeets and drs. Alex Verkade have worked out in recent months what such a center should look like. Minister Dijkgraaf informed the House today that he embraces the advice. Bridging the gap between science and society requires more than just transferring knowledge. Two-way traffic is necessary. Science also needs the support of society for major social issues. The national expertise center can play a major role in connecting science and society, because not every scientist has the knowledge and tools to get his message across properly.
Connecting science and society is the core task of the new center of expertise. It will do this by: collecting, sharing and making available knowledge about science communication; connect science communication practitioners and experts in this field and develop framework conditions that improve the effectiveness of science communication.
Minister Dijkgraaf: “So much beautiful and good research is being done in the Netherlands, but not everyone is always able to explain it properly or to ensure that it ends up in the right place. Too often it ends up in a drawer or the right people don’t get to see or hear it. Or does science miss opportunities for even better research because citizens are not involved. Because only then can the right conversation, that dialogue, be conducted. Then that critical discussion can be started. Two-way traffic is necessary. And I am grateful to Ionica and Alex for their work and very happy with the plan that we have now. I am convinced that with this new national expertise center for science communication to take the profession to the next level for better and more effective science communication.”
Don’t judge good science
The quartermasters describe that parties from the field are keen to help the center connect science and society. But also emphasize that the center itself will not communicate to society, nor will it fund communication to society or conduct its own research or provide training. Nor will the center determine or monitor what constitutes good science (or science communication). However, the center is visible and involved for scientists and institutions, it stimulates requests for advice on how to enter into dialogue with society, it puts topics of discussion from society on the agenda and it works on the development of quality.
Science communication with impact
The field of science communication is broad and has many forms, activities, target groups and practitioners. At the same time, these initiatives are often too dependent on the enthusiasm of individuals. Science communication is also not always seen as a core task. Science communication practitioners and science communication experts do not automatically meet. This inhibits the learning capacity and the impact that science communication can have. The national expertise center for science and society can provide more focus, connection and clout. In the autumn, Minister Dijkgraaf will inform the House of how the establishment of the expertise center is progressing.
Quartermasters
Based on a broad exploration, the quartermasters draw a clear conclusion: the expertise center must act as ‘a catalyst to strengthen the existing and future field.’ They have mapped out the goals, activities and preconditions needed to set up a successful centre. To this end, they not only spoke with a large number of experts in the field of communication, science and society, but also with focus groups of citizens, policy makers and staff from comparable foreign centers, such as in Germany (‘Wissenschaft im Dialog’) and England (‘ National Center for Public Engagement”). Due to the broad approach, the support for the expertise center is large. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is now setting to work on establishing the centre.