To understand and feel involved in the research.
Attract their attention in the world of virtually infinite (and not always credible or objective) information sources and short attention span.
Better awareness and understanding about the world around them and new ideas to address key challenges that society is facing.
People want to be listened to and get involved and engage in contributing to advance knowledge that addresses broad socioeconomic challenges.
Social approval, social visibility. Belief that their contribution is important
Belief that their contribution is important.
Simple efficient language, using real life examples, testimonials and facts.
Introduce the topic from a broader perspective and then work towards specific results.
Establish a contact with the public by presenting the problem, the goals of your research and your progress, and highlight how and why they can get involved. In this phase, social media is the best gateway to reach the general public.
Make a strong and clear statement about the major challenge and the key contribution of your project and create a strong brand, teasers and memorable phrases that are appealing to this group (i.e. straightforward and clear).
Organise awareness events, organize focus groups to obtain insights from this target group.
General public will be engaged via media communication. More direct approach can be chosen for selected communities or social groups (participating in the research or affected by the results) while the research results should be translated and mapped to the reality of their daily life. Demonstration events and focus groups can be used to show the results.
General media presence, dissemination materials (website, interactive tools, reports), active communication with various communities.
Massive use of social media.
Whenever possible, consider the use of endorsements or ambassadors. Having well-known people associated with the research will attract the interest of the general public.
Getting feedback from the general population is difficult, but directly affected communities should show some acknowledgement of the results.
Develop 15/20 second messages that can be shared on TV, radio or digital channels.
Communication has to be ‘digestible’ and easy to follow, avoiding specialised scientific terms and explanations. Anyone with deeper interest should be able to find information about the research easily.
Have up-to-date information on the web portal, which should be easy to navigate and find information.
Keep active on social media. Use share optimisations by investing in sharing useful information and getting the users engaged.
Give practical information that is relevant to the daily lives of ordinary people.
Don't overcomplicate or oversimplify your results.
Disseminating your results and getting as much attention as possible are related, but not the same.
A tangible vision of how things can change.
Persuading them about the importance of the information both for themselves and for the world as a whole.
Getting their attention, especially due to their visionary nature and lack of experience of seeing the impact of key challenges in society.
The naïve nature of young people with “perfect world” conception can be used for your benefit since they are, more open to causes.
Information which will influence their future and will enable them to actively shape the future.
Young people will “follow up” if they feel they can include the information in their life and work with it actively.
Lot of visualisation and interactive content. Engaging (but not too simplistic) language. Communication has to be concise and easily accessible.
Connect the information with real life, showing that is something that happening in the present with impact in the future.
Engagement is more important than cadence. Researchers should communicate their goal in the context of creating a better society.
Post-results communication with this group should be a part of a bigger, long-term engagement. Young people should be given hints on how to work with these results and how to connect them with other research.
Broad use of social media and, if possible, edutainment solutions (apps, games).
Presenting the team in a more personal way will help to gain the trust of your audience.
Reaching young people through opinion leaders (famous bloggers, YouTubers) can help your activities get noticed. Establish contacts with relevant youth groups and help them in creating discussion about the topics (a speech or workshop at a university).
Organise a European event with live streaming and video recording to create online videos and make them viral.
Create a sense of community where people can invite their peers to join the community to make the connection stronger
Active discussion about the research and its results is the most desired impact.
Present yourself and the research in a more casual way.
Engage in controversial topics.
Actively work with universities, NGOs and public authorities and youth groups.
Do not expect mere presence in social networks will give you attention from young people. Everybody has a Twitter account and Instagram these days.
One of the best ways to communicate research results is to produce a one-page summary. This is an essential tool for helping your research create impact.
Depending on the recipient, there are different approaches to developing this summary. The following section describes how to prepare a one- page summary of your research results in order to help you communicate your findings to each of the four target groups: the general public, policymakers, academia and the media Using this guide, you can deliver your research to these target groups in the way that will be of most practical use to them, while maintaining the integrity of the information. Regardless of which group is being targeted, any summary should be written with the 4 Cs in mind:
The objective is to write a brief summary addressed to people who do not have knowledge about the subject and are interested in the benefits not only for themselves but for the society in general, this is also known as the Lay Summary. General advice will be:
Define a simple sentence with not more than 20/25 words that should be understandable for lay audience. If you can put it as a question or surprising fact it will raise the interest and curiosity of the reader.
The contents should provide answers to the questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How?
Whenever possible use graphics, schemes of photos that will help the reader to better understand the research. The use of infographics1 it is also recommended.
