In the 26th of October the University of Aveiro staged another edition of APECS Portugal Workshop, the IX Workshop APECS Portugal. This year the theme was “StAY POLAR – How to communicate science?”, where several topics related to the importance of science communication were developed throughout the day.
During the morning, we counted with the participation of Kirstin Werner, from the Alfred-Wegener Institute, Germany, who explained us how communication worked among big international institutes. Afterwards, the researcher Vitor Paiva, from Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE), Portugal, demonstrated us important steps that any researcher should consider while developing an article for submitting in a scientific peer-reviewed journal.
The third guest, first in the after-lunch session, was Natalie Carter, from the University of Ottawa, Canada. Via Skype, the researcher tackled the importance of how to communicate indigenous communities in polar regions. Pedro Pombo was also one of the other invited speakers to make us know more about the work done on Fábrica Centro de Ciência Viva de Aveiro, Portugal, which is communicating and explaining science to kids. To finish, José Carlos Xavier, also a MARE researcher, came in to demystify the difficulties that exist when the targeted audience are politicians. Questions related to Conservation policy-making and how dialogue can be the key to success were addressed.
To close this Workshop’s year edition, Paulo Sérgio Santos, PhD student in Communication Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Humanity of the University of Coimbra, brought to us the activity “Lets put hands on”. With this activity, Paulo Sérgio Santos gave guidelines for oral and body posture that anyone should have when communicating science. Moreover, some practical exercises with the present audience were done in order to plant the seed and stimulate inner search for developing individual communication skills in each of anyone present.
We also want to highlight that IX Workshop APECS Portugal was transmitted via Zoom so that way we could reach everyone interested in assisting the presentations. This year we counted around 40 participants and also with the delivery of two prizes, Best Student Poster Presentation and Best Student Oral Presentation, for early career scientists. In a general way, the event was a big success with a strong adhesion from participants during the presentations and the debate panel that took place in the before the closing session of the Workshop. After all, promises were given for a better work for the next year’s edition, the X Workshop APECS Portugal
