12, 14, 19, 21, & 26 May 2020
16-18 June 2020
1-2 July 2020
2-6 September 2020
29 September-1 October 2020
14-16 October 2020
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AESIS course: 'Advancing Societal Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities' - Will be offered online!
AESIS conference: 'Impact of Science' - Krakow, Poland
Scienceworks Conference, 'Better Evidence for Better Policies', The Hague, the Netherlands
Euroscience Open Forum 2020, Trieste, Italy
EARMA's 26th Annual Conference, 'Evolution or Revolution of Research Management and Administration', Oslo, Norway
AESIS conference: 'Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities' - Toronto, Canada
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AESIS+ Membership offers opportunity to continue impact discussion from your home office
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After a conference, course or other insightful meeting, attendees go back to their organisation with many new insights and enthusiasm. However, in between physical meetings with other impact stakeholders, the world does not stop turning. Obstacles and questions arise, best practices and knowledge too, and it would be a shame to keep these to yourself until the next impact meeting. Particularly now with the recent developments concerning the COVID-19 virus, it is even more necessary that there is an online platform where sharing of knowledge can take place remotely. Knowledge exchange, whether in person or online, should continue all throughout the year!
Therefore AESIS offers a plus membership, including features such as access to our interactive online platform! This platform offers possibilities for direct contact with other experts in our network, as well as an online profile with room for your own publications, blogs, and other news items, whihc others can respond to. Furthermore, AESIS+ members gain access to summaries and presentations of AESIS events and opportunities to continue and follow the discussions that started at our events. More details about AESIS+ Membership can be found on our website.
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Help AESIS learn more about Science Communication with our survey
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Following from the interest generated by our February newsletter on Science Communication and the increasing need for accurate communication of scientific information brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic, AESIS has decided to further examine this much discussed topic. We have developed a short 10-minute survey in order to learn more about scientific researchers’ attitudes toward, beliefs about, and intentions for communicating with the lay public about science. In addition to just understanding current views regarding science communication, we will also examine how results from our data may be applied in bolstering communication with the public in the scientific community.
For researchers interested in societal impact, science communication connects science with the broader society, and the information you provide in this survey may help uncover deeper insights into how the impact of science can be advanced.
Results from this study, along with its theoretical implications and practical applications, will be presented in the June edition of our newsletter, as well as at our Science Communication course in the fall.
If you are a researcher and are interested, you may take the survey here.
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University-Industry Collaboration
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University-Industry Collaboration: the views from a research library
Pablo de Castro (University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom)
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University-Industry Collaboration is a particularly relevant area for the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The University motto "the place for useful learning" reflects a strong academic emphasis on applied sciences and engineering and on raising competitive research grant and contract funding.
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Strathclyde Uni is a member of the CESAER association of European Universities of Science and Technology and currently chairs its Task Force Innovation, a role in which it has produced – in collaboration with other member institutions in the network – the CESAER white paper “The role of universities of Science and Technology in innovation ecosystems: towards Mission 3.1”. The recently announced National Manufacturing Institute Scotland funded by the Scottish Government provides an excellent example for the kind of role that universities of Science and Technology can play as per the Strathclyde ethos in establishing a continuum between Academia and Industry for the benefit of the wider society.
This AESIS Newsletter devoted to University-Industry Collaboration offered an interesting opportunity to explore the possible role of research libraries and the research support services they host in contributing to the realisation of this institutional strategy. While libraries are the institutional units where the discussions on Open Science implementation are more intensively taking place these days, their approach might also seem occasionally out-of-synch with the highly pragmatic way in which the open innovation-driven approach to University-Industry collaboration is applied elsewhere at the institutions and beyond. It seemed a good moment to put together a 2-part reflection on this paradox. We have chosen to name these posts "Exploring complexity: the two sides of Open Science", as it is indeed a complex issue.
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Ghent University stimulates research with impact via new interdisciplinary research consortia
Esther de Smet (Ghent University, Belgium)
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In 2018 Ghent University reinforced its wish for sustainable investment in interdisciplinary collaboration and societal impact of research by introducing specific research consortia (IDC). Following a two-stage call it is now able to boast ten of these IDC.
The initiative is funded through the university's own Research Fund. With their focus on societal impact they form an interesting counterpart to the Business Development Centres.
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All IDC are led by a promotor/spokesperson and a dedicated research co-ordinator, who acts as a knowledge broker and who works in close collaboration with the central Research Department (esp. on impact policy and European public affairs). A specific career model has been developed for these IDC co-ordinators (inspired by the Ghent model).
Read the full article here.
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New industrial placement programme for Social Sciences students at the University of Cambridge & forthcoming conference paper
Konstantina Stamati (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
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The Industrial Projects for Social Sciences Students programme, supported by the Cambridge Grand Challenges (CGC) framework of engagement, has set up a pioneering partnership between academia and industry. The rationale was to demonstrate the benefits of knowledge exchange between two a-typical partners, Social Sciences and traditional engineering or technology companies.
Student placements from different Social Sciences departments at the University of Cambridge have traditionally taken place between government departments, public sector organisations and NGOs. Similarly, engineering and technology companies tend to offer placements within their technical teams to STEM students. This initiative aimed to investigate the value to all parties - companies, students and academic supervisors - of placing Social Science students within the technical teams of technology companies.
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As this is a quite unusual initiative from both Social Sciences and Industrial perspectives, a conference paper is being prepared for the R&D Management Conference in Strathclyde later this year. This aims to build on existing literature to emphasise potential impact and benefits to both students and companies.
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Universities and Growth
Koenraad Debackere (KU Leuven, Belgium)
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Universities and other non-profit research organisations contribute to the economy in multiple ways as demonstrated by a myriad of case-based as well as micro-economic analyses(1). Multiple schemes have been created (in 1980 the Bayh-Dole and Stevenson-Wydler Acts in the U.S, while in the 1990s European countries followed) assigning intellectual property rights on publicly funded research to the universities and non-profit research organizations on the condition that they assume the task to commercially exploit the results obtained.
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Such Acts have led those organizations to pay increased and professionally managed attention to any intellectual property that stems from their research as well as legally and operationally to organize the transfer of such research results and insights to the business sector, either via incumbent companies or via new start-ups and spin-offs. Professional Technology Transfer Organizations (or TTO’s) have emerged to take on that economic task(2,3). Various studies have attempted to list and understand the critical success factors of those operations and organizations. It turns out that success does not only depend on the legal context in which the aforementioned intellectual property is assigned and mobilized, but also on the strategy and dedicated organisation of the respective institutions towards technology transfer and commercialization of research output(4).
Multiple narratives show the tremendous impact universities and other non-profit research organisations have on economic development and growth. Focusing on intellectual property, a recent AUTM report(5) adds macro-level quantification and finds that the total contribution of U.S. academic licensors to industry gross output between 1996 and 2017 ranges from $723 billion to $1.7 trillion (in 2012 USD) and the contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) ranges from $374 billion to $865 billion (in 2012 USD). In addition, the report estimates that the total number of person years of employment supported by the academic licensors’ licensed-product sales range from 2.676 million to 5.883 million during the 22-year period. A rich and varied body of empirical evidence thus indicates that universities and other non-profit research organizations have significant positive impacts on economic growth(6, 7).
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References:
(1) Terroir, P. & Debackere, K. (eds) 2019. Knowledge Transfer and IP: The New Challenges. LES Nouvelles LIV(2). (2) Debackere, K. & Veugelers, R. 2005. The Role of Academic Technology Transfer Organizations in improving Industry Science Links. Research Policy 34(3), 321-342. (3) Debackere, K. 2012. The TTO. A University Engine Transforming Science into Innovation. LERU Advice Paper. (4) Weckowska, D., Twigg, D., Libaers, D., Meyer, M. & Debackere, K. (2015, on line; 2018, paper). University Patenting and Technology Commercialization – Legal Frameworks and the Importance of Local Practice, R&D Management 48(1), 88-108. (5) Pressman, L., Planting, M., Bond, J., Yuskavage, R. & Moylan, C. 2019. The Economic Contribution of University/Nonprofit Inventions in the United States: 1996-2017. A report prepared for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and AUTM. (6) Valero, A. & van Reenen, J. 2019. The economic impact of universities: Evidence from across the globe. Economics of Education Review 68, 53-67. (7) Toivanen, O. & Väänänen, L. 2016. Education and Invention. Review of Economics and Statistics 98(2), 382-396.
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Partnership between Dalhousie University and Brainlab AG makes unique radiation therapies globally accessible
Michele Charlton (Dalhousie University, Canada)
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Researchers at Dalhousie University are changing how radiation therapy is used to treat cancer, and a partnership with Brainlab AG is helping to make it globally accessible.
Brainlab is an international leader in software-driven medical technology, and its advanced systems can be found in more than 100 countries and in 75 percent of the top 1,000 cancer treatment centres globally.
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Large linear accelerators, guided by state-of-the-art software, are used to deliver radiation therapy to cancer patients. However, the equipment lacks an ability to focus the ideal dosage and intensity of radiation on the tumour itself, while minimizing radiation exposure to surrounding tissues and organs.
Dr. James Robar, Chief of the Medical Physics program at Dalhousie, and his team are developing and improving five radiotherapy and radiosurgery technologies. His work is enabling more precisely targeted radiation treatments for cancer patients, which will result in less damage to the healthy organs and issue.
The partnership between Dr. Robar and Brainlab is helping to bring this technology to market, and distribute the product internationally.
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Ontario winemakers are using innovations from Brock University to be more competitive
Roseann O’Reilly Runte (Canada Foundation for Innovation)
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Sparkling wine has been growing is popularity around the world, and for vintners like Fielding Estate Winery in Canada’s Niagara region, this is good for business. Fielding attributes a large part of its success to strong research collaborations with universities and colleges.
Niagara’s wineries work closely with Brock University, Niagara and Mohawk Colleges to overcome the challenges vintners face in the Canadian climate. These collaborations rely on state-of-the-art labs, which are hives of activity: faculty work side-by-side with growers to discover ways to protect vineyards from the cold and mildew, and to predict with great accuracy temperature fluctuations specific to very precise locations. They are developing tests to assure quality, assess the tastes of purchasers and identify the market for specific products.
Niagara is but one example of the success that comes from bringing businesses, colleges and universities together. All too often we hear that universities and businesses do not work well together. Niagara proves that they can and do.
I believe that there are three basic elements for successful collaboration: a regional research and economic development plan, people motivated to seek solutions to problems, and the spaces and tools researchers need to build collaborations and find solutions for business and industry. That combination also opens up opportunities for students to learn the skills and gain knowledge that will make them innovative thinkers and valuable employees.
Find the full story about Fielding Estate here, along with more stories about how research and businesses in Canada are collaborating.
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From our Network - COVID-19
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University of Queensland races to develop COVID-19 vaccine
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The University of Queensland has recently begun development of a new vaccine for the COVID-19 virus, as requested by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). In collaboration with CEPI, University of Queensland uses its ‘molecular clamp’ technology to respond to the rapidly spreading virus. This technology for producing quick development of vaccines was developed through the successful collaboration between University of Queensland, CSIRO, WHO-CC, the Australian National University, Hong Kong University, and Q-Pharm Pty Ltd. Molecular clamp is patented by UniQuest, an Australian technology transfer company that commercialises research from University of Queensland to create change and deliver impact.
Read the full article here.
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Open Data can be advanced by the COVID-19 pandemic, but will still require a comprehensive approach
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In this article, Evgeny Bobrov of Berlin Health Institute talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic has made it imperative that all available information on the virus be made open and free, so that epidemiologists, virologists, and emergency physicians may easily access this information and use it to slow the spread of the virus, develop vaccines and more, as well as the developments already seen from initiating data sharing.
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Action towards openness has already been taken, with journals granting nearly universal open access to corona-related research articles. In regards to open data, shared data on coronaviruses has led to developments of potential treatments at unprecedented speeds and to development of a new drug repurposing methodology. Additionally, John Hopkins University has been able to create a dashboard using open data to track cases of COVID-19, and use open source software Nextstrain to track the evolution of the virus. Data sharing efforts have contributed to fighting the impact caused by the corona pandemic and can be expected to contribute even more in the near future. Bobrov proposes that effort should hence be concentrated on pushing data sharing to a new level so that in future health emergencies, there will not be the need to call for shared data as everything will already be open and in place.
Read the full article here.
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COVID-19 Science Communication Initiatives
Given the current situation, accurate and comprehensible information on COVID-19 is crucial in helping the public understand the virus. It is heartening to see science communication efforts being made by the scientific community, where information on the virus is delivered to the public in an accessible and understandable way. To list a few of these initiatives:
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Course
"Advancing the Societal Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities"
12,14,19,21 & 26, May - Online
We are excited to invite you to our course on Advancing Societal Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities, originally in Oxford but now to be held online!
After the pilot course of last year, AESIS proudly announces a new edition of this ambitious international course, where leading experts in the disciplines of the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) will demonstrate how to stimulate societal impact of SSH.
Join us in this international online course to gain insights into stimulating and facilitating impact structures in your organisation!
Find more information here.
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Conference
"Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities"
15 -16 October - Toronto, Canada
Proudly presenting to you our fourth edition of the Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) conference -- this year, we aim to foster a discussion on how one can assess and stimulate impact of SSH through an interdisciplinary approach.
Expect insightful talks and debates on the meaning of impact in context of different segments of society, indicators through which we can measure impact, collaboration opportunities with society stakeholders, how co-creations of knowledge through interdisciplinary collaboration may stimulate impact, and much more!
Take part in our international conference in Toronto and learn more about stimulating and assessing impact of SSH through interdisciplinary and inclusive approaches.
Find more information here.
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More News From Our Network
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How do organisations implement research impact assessment (RIA) principles and good practice?
Adam Kamenetzky & Saba Hinrichs-Krapels (King's College London, United Kingdom)
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How can we open up the scientific process to public scrutiny and evidence the impacts of research? While a lot of work tends to fall on academic/research organisations and individuals, research funding organisations clearly have a role to play in supporting and assessing the wider impacts of research. We knew there was good practice ‘out there’, but was there any empirical evidence on funders’ impact and assessment policies, or critical analysis of their practices? Our study explored the scientific literature and, finding few examples, supplemented this with interviews with four organisations.
Our interviewees reflected on the factors they felt made a difference to their organisations’ impact and assessment strategies. Inwardly, they spoke of aspects such as leadership, evaluation skills, and automating impact data collection wherever feasible. Outwardly, engaging researcher (and wider) communities and supporting a learning approach, helped them to ensure equity and maximise the value of research investments.
From this, we recommend three key facets to underpin funders’ impact policies:
- get set up by considering upfront the resources, time and leadership required to embed impact strategies throughout the organisation and wider research ‘ecosystem’, and develop methodical approaches to assessing impact;
- work together by engaging researcher communities and wider stakeholders as a core part of impact pathway planning and subsequent assessment, and
- recognise the benefits that research impact assessment can bring about as a means to improve mutual understanding of the research process between different actors with an interest in research.
Click to read the full article here.
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If Researchfish was around in the day of Marie Curie, what would their Researchfish submission look like?
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Researchfish has recently started a new blogpost series featuring famous scientists of the past. This series asks the question, "If Researchfish was around in the day of {inset famous scientist name}, what would their Researchfish submission look like?"
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The first famous scientist to be featured in this new series is Marie Curie, in celebration of International Women's day (March 8th). In the series, the featured scientists' lifetime achievements are structured around the sixteen common outcome types reported via Researchfish. These achievements range from publications, collaborations, and awards and recognition, to artistic and creative products (for example: did you know Marie Curie inspired a 1975 music album titled Radioactivity?).
Read Marie Curie's Researchfish blogpost here.
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New ways of sharing our most compelling stories
Michele Charlton (Dalhousie University, Canada)
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Ending poverty. Fighting inequalities. Tackling climate change. Ensuring that no one is left behind. Dalhousie University’s researchers are tackling some of the planet’s most complex and urgent challenges, and some unique methods are being used to tell the story of how they are making it happen.
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Sciographies is a podcast and radio program launched by the Faculty of Science in partnership with campus-community radio station CKDU FM. The podcast explores the early lives, interests and career paths of Dalhousie scientists to showcase the story behind what led each of them to the research they’re conducting today. Episodes of the show are available on Apple and Android podcast apps.
Dalhousie’s social media channels are another tool that has been used to highlight the incredible work being done by researchers. In October, during Women’s History Month in Canada, two minute videos were created to profile our female researchers who are making an impact every day. A similar approach was taken in December, and a research spin was put on the holiday season. Both sets of videos can be found here. In addition, these channels are used each week to celebrate our researchers who have received major awards and prizes.
Our goal is to continue to share the university’s most compelling stories, and look for new and inventive ways to talk about the students, faculty and staff who make our university an extraordinary place.
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The characteristics of citations in clinical guidelines
Magnus Eriksson (Minso Solutions, Sweden)
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Tracking citations between scholarly articles have been used for decades in order to asses academic impact. New measurements have been developed in order to track other forms of impact. One way of tracking societal impact is to study cited papers in policy documents and clinical guidelines. Uses range from evaluating the impact of a university on national and international healthcare, tracking the uptake of research on specific drugs in official recommendations, and for researchers to study the characteristics of research included in clinical guidelines.
In a recently published paper, the latter is explored; the characteristics of the studies included in clinical guidelines. Since more than 50% of research cited in clinical guidelines are not included in the evidence base used for the recommendations, identifying the included studies is key to assess impact. Using the clinical impact® database, the results showed that more clinical research were cited more in clinical guidelines than more basic research were, which is the opposite to which type of research tends to be cited most in academic journals. Also, the timespan for research to be cited in clinical guidelines is shown to be longer, with a peak at around 5 years after publication, double that of the timespan for citations in scholarly journals. When evaluating the societal impact, a too short publication window may flaw the results.
Read the full article here.
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Male authors boost research impact through self-hyping studies
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A language analysis of research paper titles and abstracts found that when first and last authors were female, these articles were 12% less likely than those with male authors to include terms such as ‘unprecented’, ‘novel, ‘excellent’ or ‘remarkable.’ The same study also found that papers without such sensationalistic terms were cited significantly less.
This may be due to decades of studies suggesting that women are more likely to face backlash than men from peers and society when they stray from stereotypical norms, and women may therefore edit and tone down their language so as not to seem forceful or boastful. This comparative lack of inflated language in papers with female authorship echoes a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2019, which found a “large and robust gender gap in self-promotion,” as described by business-administration researcher Christine Exley of Harvard Business School.
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These studies reveal thought-provoking philosophical questions regarding the power, meaning, and usage of words. Whether language acts as a mirror to society or acts to shape society, language has the power to reflect and promote bias and female researchers are facing the consequences.
Read the full article here.
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Communicative Methodology: contributions to social impact assessment in psychological research
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In psychology, research impact has mainly been measured through scientific publications in journals –- on the flipside, less is known about how social impact of psychological research is measured. This article presents the communicative methodology (CM) as a way for evaluating the social impact of psychological research and describes how impact may be achieved through CM.
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The aim of CM is to create positive impact in society, to lead to providing of improvements to the individuals and collectivities being studied, and to contribute to society as a whole. For measuring the social impact of research projects, the importance of using databases such as the Social Impact Open Repository (SIOR) is underlined. CM also addresses the need for dialogue and communication in research, through engaging with citizens in a bottom-up approach to understand the needs and views of society at large. The article further discusses the theoretical basis of CM, how CM may be implemented, and successful case studies of CM used in psychological research to achieve social impact.
Read the full article here.
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Sustainable Development: Are universities ready to lead?
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Professor Daniella Tilbury spoke about how universities may lead changes in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) instead of being mere followers of change at the International Conference on SDGs in early March this year. Of topics mentioned, Tilbury spoke on how ideas of sustainability should be rethought, that actions should be more than just incremental approaches that do not challenge the status quo, but should instead target the heart of student life and open the opportunity for critical thinking. The example of University of Cambridge’s removal of lamb and beef in favor of plant-based alternatives in their catering services was raised as an ambitious and radical change that led to real impact in decreased carbon emissions.
The article concludes that in order to reach the seventeen SDGs by 2030, young people need to be educated with the mindset of being more ambitious on sustainability actions, and that universities need to evolve from being mirrors to society’s current actions to being perpetrators of social change.
Read the full article here.
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Four Reasons to Graphically Illustrate Your Research
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Researcher Gemma Sou talks about how she used a graphic novel to showcase the outcomes of her research concerning low-income Puerto Rican families in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Dr. Sou gives four reasons to graphically illustrate research:
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- To create ethical public representations of research - the character driven narrative communicates the people aspect of the research in a more ethical and nuanced way
- To make research more democratic - accessible and enjoyable material transfers information to a wider audience and makes audience feel more comfortable in partaking in discussions
- To teach in engaging and innovative ways - combines information from research with the aesthetic elements of graphic novels
- To release your inner creativity - provides an opportunity for researchers to work more creatively
Read the full article here.
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