Session 1 - Science Communication

Author

PULSE TCDC

Published

January 16, 2026

ResearchComp competencies developed in this session

Making an impact

Foundational Intermediate
1. Participate in the publication process
• Understands how academics communicate research results
2. Disseminate results to the research community
• Engages in knowledge exchange • Contributes to promoting the public understanding of own research area
4. Communicate to the broad public
• Understands and appreciates the value of engaging with the public
7. Promote the transfer of knowledge
• Appreciates the importance of knowledge exchange within society • Contributes to knowledge exchange within society

Learn

Watch the following interview with Dr. Emelie Hilner, physicist and science communication officer at MAX IV.

Practice

Note

The work of this practice exercise should take a maximum of 1 hour.

Step 1 - Identify one science communicator that you think does good work.

Step 2 - Create a short video of yourself sharing your science for a non-scientific audience (length: 1-2 minutes)

  • Dr. Hilner recommends reflecting on the context your science operates in. What challenges are you ultimately trying to solve? What field of exploration are you working in?
  • Your video content should be about your area of expertise, and could be explaining a concept, introducing a technique, debunking a misconception, sharing what the best part of your job is, etc.
  • The format can be filming yourself talking, narrating something happening in the lab, narrating an animation, chatting with a colleague, etc.
  • You are very welcome to do this exercise in any language.
Important

Ensure you do not film any person or any experimental setups without explicit consent!

Step 3 - Show the video to at least one person from the non-scientific audience

  • This can be a friend, someone in your family, a teammate, your kid’s friend’s parent, a bored barista, anyone! You are free to choose whether you post this on social media or keep it locally on your mobile.
  • Ask your audience about what kind of response they had to your content. Did they enjoy it? Did they learn something? Did this match the response you hoped to generate?

Discuss

  • At the webinar, your facilitators will lead a discussion about your experience of this exercise.
  • If you are facilitating, please take a look at the Facilitation Guide.

Next level

Five (optional!) exercises for science communication

If you’re interested in deepening your practice of science communication, here are five additional exercises:

  1. Read the latest news article from MAX IV. What AEIOU response do you have to this news piece?

  2. Read and save these Seven principles for research communication, from Lund University.

  3. Watch Dr. Michelle Wong’s deep dive into misrepresentation of expert opinion on social platforms, or the ‘appeal to false authority’. Reflect on what sorts of science communication topics you are and are not able to address with your expertise.

  4. Find the contact information for your University’s press office, and look for information on what they require for a press release.

  5. Find three markets for science communication relevant to your field. As an example, for a microbiology project this could be The Conversation, The Microbiologist, the Small Things Considered blog, or the Swedish language magazine Tidningen Curie.

Citation

The materials from this session are available for reuse under

Please cite this material as:

Hilner, E. and Schroeder, K. (2026). SciLifeLab PULSE Transferrable Skills Training Session 1 - Science Communication. Retrieved from https://scilifelab-training.github.io/PULSE/0001/session1.html. DOI: (pending)

If you use this material, we’d love to know! Get in touch with us at pulse.training@scilifelab.se

Footnotes

  1. According to the AEIOU Framework used to evaluate Science Communication effectiveness, first published as Burns, et al. 2003↩︎