But there are a lot of players on the field – state agencies, commercial interests, universities, fourth level institutes (Geary / Tyndall etc..) plus all sorts of collaborations across institutions (CSETs, DMMC) and other genuinely motivated parties (Engineers Irl etc.) The real politick is that they are all competing for that limited media space that Elaine refers, sometimes employing agencies to ‘protect’ their piece (with an eye of course to being able to justify funding)

As much as ‘investing’ in communications capability and helping the researcheerrs to help themselves, there should also be a case for some form of communications csar around this area, with a whip (in the parliamentary meaning of the word) over al of the organisations that have a voice so that some sense of coherence is projected to the public at large.

http://tinyurl.com/yzcxpt3

The focus on the flimsy and sexy stuff is funny in one way, but desperately sad and scary in another.
The media’s failure to understand SFI and the language of research and science is compounded by the failure of scientists and researchers to communicate their message in a ‘media friendly’ way.
DCU’s MSc in Science Communication is one course that’s helping to address these problems. I haven’t done it and I’m not a scientist, but I’ve years of background in trying to draw out information and in trying to communicate often technical information in an understandable way. And that’s not to say I always get it right.
But recently, I interviewed two senior scientists working for a State body. They were trying to get some coverage for an annual report outlining spend on very specific environment-related R&D programmes. They were excellent – communicated the message to me really well, gave me good case studies to get my teeth into. And guess what? Paper didn’t use the piece. Or did, but days later and only to ‘fill a hole’.
Make any sense guys?

The most frustrating part is that all the IP and ideas developed in the universities are not being released into the economy. There still is a big disconnect between universities and business. Again communication is the issue (both parties speak a different language)

Now is the time to release it and make it a lot easier for Irish SME to access the knowledge, ideas, innovation, IP (not the same as innovation) and connectivity of universities. I have seen what can happen (Slidepath, Phive as examples) and it is fantastic when it (sort of) works.

Getting good stories out of the universities can be like pulling teeth at times. Many need to up their game, they need good in-house PR people.

I’m not sure I’d advocate spending public funds on outside PR people although it does seem to be happening in places.

And the flipside I’d say is that there is an element of money being wasted and boxticking requirements are actually hampering good research and good scientists.

I won’t be the first to say that every research project can be understood by the public – like studies of colours of toad species in the rainforest et al – but these projects are important not only for creating jobs, but also for giving us insight into the world around us. What are toads coloured that waty? Is ecology? Changing habitats?

But if we don’t try to make talking about research and why it’s important to us, then Science unfairly gets lumped into the bucket of public spending instead of investment in the future. A negative sign on balance sheet. And this is a difficult thing to shirk.

But I digress and all of this concentration on research is beside the point, though. The thesis of the post says that failure is a necessary by-product of creating successes. And of course, at the heart of this is the fear that putting oneself on the line with an idea – that risk – scares people. Leaving a disproportionate amount of those that try (using supports) either having the wrong sorts of ideas or being chancers.