Science policy and communication information - a directory
Science Policy News: SPIN is the Science Policy Information News, a bulletin run by the Wellcome Trust. Other Science Policy News can be found in the BA magazine, Science and Public Affairs. You can also subscribe to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology's POSTnotes. There is also the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee publication Science in Parliament.
Key Organisations: Newton's Apple is a neutral and non-partisan charity working at the interface of science and policy.
The Foundation for Science and Technology facilitates debate around scientific issues affecting the public.
The Science Council touches on policy with many of its initiatives.
The UK Research Councils not only fund a vast amount of the UK academic research base, but also do a lot of policy work, with initiatives such as the ESRC Evidence Network.
There are a good number of learned societies doing excellent work with policy. A good example of this is the British Ecological Society. There is a list of other learned societies in the directory.
For more general science media there are more obvious players such as New Scientist, Nature, BBC Focus , Science in Society and Science Magazines. You can also sign up for bulletins from BioNews, and the British Association for Advancement of Science, as well as ScienceBase, which covers a large scope of science news and links to a very useful directory of free publications and resources.
A key organisation working for better communication of science through the national media is the Science Media Centre.
For science TV and drama there are a initiatives such a FirstScienceTV and PAWS.
A key association for people working in science-related PR is STEMPRA.
And finally, for all your science media online networking needs, there is the Research and Media Network, and for those working in any part of the science and society field, then joining the Psci-com mailing list is an essential.
A major event in the science media calendar is the World Conference of Science Journalists.The 6th conference will be held in London in 2009.
There are a number of organisations working in science education. The key groups are the Association for Science Education and SCORE, the Science Community Partnership Supporting Education.
A key organisation encouraging young people in Science, Technology and Engineering is STEMNET.
The Learning Grid has been created to meet the needs of students, teachers and industry by bringing together different programmes and competitions for young people. These activities are all linked to engineering, science, design, technology or mathematics.
The STEM Directories are a new resource, to be launched in September 2008, listing enhancement and enrichment schemes and activities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. .
Again there are a number of learned societies which are very active in this field, and these are listed in the directory.
For anyone starting out in science writing who is wondering where best to get their information. Joining the Association of British Science Writers could be valuable. It might also be worth signing up for AlphaGalileo and the EurekAlert.
For those into demos, exhibits, or mixed media there are a host of resources available to you. Organisations such as the British Interactive Group and Ec-site-UK have excellent websites and programmes of activities. The National Museum of Science and Industry run a website that covers jobs and activities in the Science Museum among others. Many cities now have an annual science festival, some of the big ones being Brighton, Cheltenham, and Manchester.
BA Science Communication Conference 2009
The BA are currently inviting people to propose their session ideas for the conference on the 22nd and 23rd of June 2009. For more info click here.
Check this out:
To celebrate the 200th Birthday of Charles Darwin, the UK Research Councils have launched a website celebrating modern evolutionary research - Darwin Today.
Date: Your event could go here.
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Allows early career social science researchers to disseminate their work and provides 1 year free membership of the British Sociological Association.