As my institution deals with such novel topics in Tropical Medicine, and also it can be intriguing to the general public as it isn't the 'normal", the interest around it and the communication tools used are successful. However, the funding is limited, which can also limit how much goes into public engagement. There are TEDtalks and humanitarian symposiums frequently which all help to increase public awareness, even the odd BBC news video. As most of the diseases in this field don't directly affect people in this country, it can be hard to engage everyone however.

Considering I'm involved in research for the improvement of lab animal welfare, I feel the two biggest lay audiences would be the animal technicians themselves and also the public. The former need the research to be communicated effectively to them so they can begin to incorporate findings into the husbandry of the animals. For the public I feel this type of research could provide a useful narrative to properly address the industry's attitudes and actions surrounding animal welfare.

Strategies for communicating to technicians would be especially useful if done so interactively, such as through workshops, as allowing discussions that create methods for integrating results into husbandry routines would increase the likelihood of research having impacts. For public dissemination, I feel more standardised materials such as videos talks would be more applicable due to their greater reach being able to hopefully help large amounts of the public understand the state of animal welfare in animal research at the moment, and the manner in which welfare is considered and being continuously improved upon within our disciplines. I feel this approach would not only be informative, but remove some of the stigma around animal research by not hiding it behind closed doors and instead showing our active efforts to continuously improve welfare.

I have a few approaches that I am developing. One is through creating curricula aimed at undergraduates that integrates them into active research at my institution through projects that stem from my lab. I aim to expand these curricula and adapt them for other, younger levels of audience.

I also am working to develop a social media presence for my research. These have primarily been through Twitter and Instagram, with posts sharing my work and the work of my students.

My current strategy for communication to lay audiences involves sharing interesting videos on facebook, giving talks at the local school, and all round just being enthusiastic about my area whenever someone asks me what I'm doing, like my family and friends. It's not much, but I hope to expand my outreach soon and maybe get involved with some local science summer camps. Genetics is woefully misunderstood and there simply isn't enough good information out there for lay audiences. Some programs such as Plant Earth and the new Netflix documentary on genetic engineering are very good, and more programs should be made to take advantage of TV as a media for science communication.

The field of research in which I work is public health.

Our audience is the general public and researchers in particular. According to whom the information we communicate is addressed, we use social networks, newsletters, dissemination events and press releases.

When it is addressed to schoolchildren, we use informative videos or informative talks that are entertaining and fun, adapted according to their age, with visits to our facilities, accompanied by an explanation of the topic treated by one of our researchers.

If we send press releases to the media, we do so with an informative language so that everyone can understand.

Why engage?

Because teen pregnancy is still one of the main reasons for school drop-out and poverty, and it impacts directly into the Panamanian economy, politics, and culture.

What is my target audience?

Young women from 12 to 18 years old enrolled in public school settings in Panama.

How to engage?

Organize a meeting with the Claras organization (a national organization that works in rural context to prevent teen pregnancy and gender violence), and with the Ministry of Social Development, specifically with the Youth Program Director. Then, present my research findings and discuss ways to generate a teen pregnancy prevention program in public schools for young women from 12 to 18 years old.

Evaluation Process

Pre-test and post-test methodology will be used to evaluate the prevention program. The program will include storytelling, group activities and a resolution to present their point of view regarding teen pregnancy and its consequences.

This module has been particularly useful for my research as one of the main aims of the wider BigO study which encompasses my project is encouraging participants to be active citizen scientists. As the BigO study is European wide, I do envisage (and at least hope) that there will be more about it in the public domain. However the trick to achieve this is to encourage participants to engage with the mHealth app used as part of the study and contribute valuable data of the participants environment to help inform policy and target public health action. This is where my study comes in and I aim to present my findings at the ICO/ECO European Obesity congress in 2020 and at the INDI research symposium in 2020 to help disseminate my findings to those living with obesity, their families and healthcare professionals who may be unaware of such mHealth interventions and research currently being undertaken. 

We have a communication strategy in my institution, although most of it is focused on internal users of the library (i.e. academics, students, and hospital staff). However, we do have some events for the general public, and our strategy for these events is as follows:

1. Who are the people we are trying to communicate with?
2. What are we trying to communicate to these people?
3. What resources, tools, platforms and techniques will we use to communicate with them?
4. How will we evaluate the success of this communication?
   
5. What went well? What could be improved? How will we approach things differently the next time we hold a similar event?

I feel like there is a lot of misinformation out there about what researchers do and even what cancer actually even is. When I tell people what I do, I get a lot of "haven't you cured it yet" type questions. I feel like this comes from a misconception about the amount of work and steps involved in the whole process of drug discovery and diagnostics. I feel like we could do a much better job at communicating this so that people wouldn't get them impression that we are somehow lazy. As well as making our use of language more accessible for laypeople, I also feel like we could do more to explain why we use scientific language the way we do and how it helps us to dispel the notion that we are doing it solely to be confusing or elitist.

In our organisation we have a number of central units who are involved in different aspects of research communication together with the researchers. This includes the Communication department, the library, section for internationalisation and the section for research and innovation. In order to offer our researchers support in their communication strategy in general and also for specific research projects we are now working together to find an optimal way to suppport through the research lifecycle. Being able to develop a good communication strategy with clear objectives, tools and channels correct for each specific target audience (general public, policy makers, public sector, private sector etc) is essential.

My research could be communicated in different ways to a variety of audiences - both adults and children. There is a lot of information available to the public on my research field (sleep), but some of this information is false or misleading, and it is likely difficult for lay audiences to evaluate the validity of information they read online.

Strategies to communicate accurate findings to relevant audiences include public talks, blog posts linked to my institution, accessible documents made available online, and public engagement workshops. 

I found there are extensive assays and articles over the medical impact of inhibiting the protein I am studying (also for a non-scientific audience). On the other hand, there is information about the structure of thel molecules I am studying but the is a lack of information at the cell biology and physiology level (both in terms of scientific articles and scientific communication for a general audience). 

The perception of general public is that drugs and drugs loaded in drug delivery systems are same. It is very important for them to understand that drug delivery systems improves the efficacy of the drug, thus the overall cost of treatment gets deduced and also the side-effects.

By communicating my research, I want them to understand the difference between simple drugs and drugs loaded in carriers. 

My audience will be doctors, patients and industries who are manufacturing osteoarthritis drugs.

I am planning to participate in public seminars, will visit hospitals, industry conferences etc.