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Hi Ylva Persson ..

Ylva Persson

... PhD Student at INES, who visited the Forum for Research Communication on Science Festival in Gothenburg some time ago.

How was the forum for science communication?

It was really inspiring! There were different types of research communication, ranging from discussion groups, quick presentations, tips on different ways to communicate and also fun to meet people from all sorts of institutions and places. Research Communication has become more and more important - before there was more focus on the details, but now it has become more focused on communication.

What stayed with you?

That there are different ways to communicate and that it is important to distinguish between information which I tell those who are listening, and communication, which involves the audience in a different way. It is important to adapt the language to those who listen, while not underestimating the listener. It is easy to be in a presentation using familiar terms that serve as information, but may not be in communication with a different audience. A complex language may alienate listeners.

You have got a practical experience of communicating with audiences outside the university in that you participated in LU's library tour this spring?

Yes, it was good training. In a lecture, it was obvious that the audience came for the other two speakers who got very many questions - I only got one. But it was good to train for such an audience, too. On the tour, I myself felt that it is a good idea to involve the audience, gives a little more time and take questions afterwards instead of at the end. Then the audience impact and come up with their opinions, you reach out better. One must also start by asking oneself these questions: what is the message I want to spread and why?

Also, you are a group leader for the doctoral group of Linnaeus LUCCI, and you have a project about oral presentations, right?

Yes, we try to offer training in oral presentations, workshops and joint discussions and exercises. There are many who think it's great, but too many people find it uncomfortable and don't want to join. Or they believe that their research is not interesting to others outside the university. But knowing how to communicate in a good way is an asset in many contexts. It would take more opportunities for doctoral training to learn how to communicate their research, it is something we do very often, and many feel uncertain about. We do not get the exercise sessions. In the UK, for example, they are very good at science communication, where they are working much more with it and learn from the beginning how to express themselves to do their research interesting for the public.