Sharing science stories on local radio – Love & Science

Discussions about zombie fungi, exoplanets, and vegetarian spiders; seamless segues; and Taylor Swift. All to be expected during a typical ...

Learning Lab: Science Focus magazine

I was sitting near the cascade steps in Bristol City Centre when I had a rare epiphany. A guest on ...

What happens to our science communication graduates? The Sequel Part 2

In our last blog post we updated you on our 2023 Infographic data gathered from 55% (n=165) of graduates who ...

What happens to our science communication graduates? The Sequel Part 1

In 2016 we published an infographic that explored the career paths of our students after they completed their MSc. In ...

MSc Science Communication – Learning Lab placements

Have you heard of Learning Lab placements? They are placements are offered to students studying a MSc Science Communication with ...

From biology to science communication

Many people in the science communication field have an educational background in natural sciences (in my case biology), and subsequently ...

Introducing COALESCE – the project creating a European Competence Centre for Science Communication

We live in an era when more and more of the science we watch and read appears online and there ...

Homes under the microscope: pilot phase

Like most people I spend a lot of time in my home; on average we spend 80% of our time ...

Science on Air and on Screen 2022

Students on the Science on Air and on Screen module in the 21/22 academic year made a 7 minute film ...

Driving policy around the COVID-19 pandemic

Policy briefs exploring the impact of COVID-19 on people and the planet have been published by researchers from UWE Bristol’s ...

Homes under the Microscope: A citizen-led project to investigate airborne microplastics in the home

By Dr Margarida Sardo Homes Under the Microscope (HOMEs) is a multidisciplinary project that brings scientists, participants and the textile ...

What we can learn from Easton – 3 indicators of community climate action

by Mic Palmer A Youth Climate Café that took place in St Marks Church in Easton in April 2022 invited ...

Shining a light on green job pathways for the next generation

Today marks the launch of a new year-long programme that aims to inspire and motivate young people in the West ...

A toolkit and training for youth climate social action

A toolkit and training for effective youth climate comms and social action UWE Bristol’s Science Communication Unit (SCU) is launching ...

Studying science communication online: My professional transition during a global transition

I never thought that my professional life would change in the way it has over the last three years. Nor ...

Finding purpose in prose…and science communication  

Sophie Pavelle I never knew what I wanted to be – except that any career for me had to have ...

Graduating and working during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finishing our MSc in Science Communication and graduating during a pandemic and national lockdowns was not how any of us ...

Avon students take part in workshop at UWE Bristol

By Gracie Allen, part of the Avon Schools Eco Network Over half term, Tillie, Ellie and I represented Avon schools ...

WeCount Evaluation Summary: Citizen Science on Urban Mobility

WeCount was a two-year Horizon 2020 project which aimed to quantify local road transport, produce scientific knowledge in the field ...

New publication – Transforming tradition: how the iconic Christmas Lectures series is perceived by its audiences

Photo credit: Paul Wilkinson Photography Margarida Sardo, Hannah Little and Laura Fogg Rogers conducted research to explore strengths and opportunities for improving the ...

Youth Climate Communications: a pilot

On 24th February, 12 young people, aged 15-24, headed to UWE Bristol’s Prototype and Play Lab, in the School of ...

Engaging children with STEM through Minecraft: new practitioner guides

Science Hunters has been engaging children with the computer game Minecraft since 2014. Originally initiated at Lancaster University, the programme ...

Scicomm and the Sea

I grew up by the sea, with generations of my family making a living from our waters – it’s in ...

The Importance of Being Interested

Robin Ince is now renowned as “the science guy” of comedy. From The Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC Radio 4, ...

The Academy Zone: Reflective Online Science Communication Training

This blog post is part of an exhibit for Engage Conference 2021. “I’m a Scientist, get me out of here” ...

Empowering WECA pupils with data for sustainable school streets

Speeding cars, traffic jams, air pollution… these are but a few of the grievances the average city dweller contends with ...

New Minecraft programme allows children to digitally engineer the West of England

A new Minecraft programme featuring iconic Bristol and Bath landmarks is allowing children to digitally engineer the West of England, ...

New community STEM club launched in Easton

STEM @ Baggator is a community STEM club for young people in Easton that takes place after school on Mondays ...

Women Like Me engineers inspire Bristol primary school students

Based in the Science Communication Unit and Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics at UWE Bristol and organised by Dr ...

Meet Me in Another STEM Career

In science communication, we often talk about science capital: the concept of feeling like science is “for me” as a ...

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in delivering Citizen Science projects: Insights from the WeCount project

Margarida Sardo and Sophie Laggan WeCount is a citizen science research project funded by the H2020 SwafS-programme and aims to ...

Providing space for social communication in a STEM engagement project

This post was originally published on the Engineering our Future and Curiosity Connections blogs. Neurodiversity Week (15-21 March 2021) celebrates ...

What is an engineer anyway? – Communicating engineering careers to pupils with DETI’s Engineering Curiosity project

When children are asked what an engineer is, and what they look like, it can often be a tricky question ...
ClairCity project logo

Seeing people in the data

By Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers We’re living through a Climate and Ecological Emergency and we urgently need to reduce carbon emissions ...

Writing Science – Student Magazine Work 2021

Students on the Writing Science module in the 20/21 academic year came up with some impressive online science magazines. Their ...

Science on Air and on Screen – Student Videos 2021

Students on the Science on Air and on Screen module in the 20/21 academic year had to contend with social ...

“It gave me the confidence to consider science communication as a career…”

Kassie at NASA Ames in front of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) My name is Kassie. I’m a ...

The contemporary relevance of science communication in the era of COVID

This blog post was originally included in Transforming Society published by Bristol University Press and Policy Press, on 12th November ...

Creating a short science based multilingual film for a European audience

I recently had the opportunity to produce a documentary about the concerning shortage of early career pollinator taxonomists in Europe ...

How open are we as science communicators?

Photo credit: Marten Newhall, Unsplash Words: Andy Ridgway When I started teaching science writing after spending years as a journalist, ...

Kitchen Cultures: cultivating cross-cultural conversations towards inclusive climate futures

Introduction These are some of the questions that have emerged through Kitchen Cultures, a project that has been developed with ...

The state of science communication as a field of research – a discussion

The Science Communication Unit’s Dr Emma Weitkamp recently participated in an online discussion about the state of science communication as ...

Building to Break Barriers – a different view of engineering

Building to Break Barriers is a new outreach project that aims to engage children from under-represented groups with engineering, using ...

Science communication is still more dissemination than dialogue

Photo credit: Pxhere.com Words: Andy Ridgway It’s a central theme to any science communication training – to communicate science effectively ...

Mutual Shaping in Swarm Robotics: User Studies in Fire and Rescue, Storage Organization, and Bridge Inspection

Fire engine at the Bristol Robotics Lab after a focus group session with local firefighters I remember this story as ...
ClairCity project logo

Evaluating Europe’s largest project on citizen-inclusive decision making for clean air and carbon management

With just ten years left to change our carbon intensive lifestyles to mitigate climate chaos, urgent decisions need to be ...

New insight into the motivations of today’s science communicators

Words: Andy Ridgway Why do those who blog, tweet, run events at festivals, give talks and engage in all the ...

Science Chatters

Walking around the Frenchay campus at UWE Bristol is an intriguing experience. Wander down one corridor and you find yourself ...

Building our understanding of diabetes with Minecraft (even if you don’t have the game!)

The inside of the human body, and all its organs, cells and molecules can be tricky to visualise, and that ...

COVID-19 opportunities to shift artificial intelligence towards serving the common good

Contact tracing apps are just one measure governments have been using in their attempts to contain the current coronavirus outbreak ...

Museums will open their doors again after the COVID-19 crisis – here’s why

Adam Milner's Late Night Space Force, 31 October 2019 - 26 Jan 2020, Everson Museum of Art. This blog post ...

MSc Science Communication Part-Bursary Scheme – open for applications

This year, the Science Communication Unit at UWE Bristol is able to offer a bursary which will part-fund a place ...

Research and writing placement exploring science communication and the tobacco industry

Have you ever considered researching corporate misbehaviour? I hadn’t either until October when, just after I had started my MSc, ...

Discovering science communication at the Science Communication Unit, UWE Bristol

I’m a junior assistant professor at Utrecht University, which means I split my time 50/50 between teaching and PhD research ...

WeCount: a new European citizen science project aimed at improving local mobility

Air quality and traffic congestion are among the main causes of poor urban living and have sparked rising concerns about ...

Behind the scenes at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

MSc in Science Communication student, Chloe Russell, describes their recent visit to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery as part of ...

How we mapped the vast online science communication terrain

The number of people writing, tweeting, instagramming, blogging, podcasting, vlogging about all things science is unfathomably large. Then there’s the ...

How do the residents of former metal mining areas value this heritage?

By Danni Sinnett (Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments) and Margarida Sardo (Science Communication Unit). There are around 5,000 former ...

Modernising the iconic Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

A team of Science Communication Unit researchers was selected by the Royal Institution (Ri) to explore ways to continue modernising ...

Visits, Projects and Exhibits 2019

During the course of their MSc in Science Communication, our students go on some pretty exciting visits to locations where ...

Designing an inclusive event: Sci Comm South West 2019

On 21st June UWE Bristol welcomed over 100 science-communication practitioners from the South West, the culmination of over five months ...

From the lab to science communication, exploring creativity, evaluation and Wonder

During my undergraduate degree in biochemistry I spent a year studying abroad in Grenoble in the French Alps. I studied ...

Letting go of what is not serving us to make science communication more inclusive

Author: Karen Collins (MSc Science Communication student at UWE Bristol) What language can we use to create inclusive environments in ...

Shaping a Science Communication network for the South-West

Author: Ola Michalec @Ola_Michalec The Sci Comm South West Conference 2019 attracted over 100 practitioners and researchers based across the ...

How one student project is making an impact

Studying part-time and working full-time is challenging to say the least. But now that I’ve finished, I can honestly say ...

Funding, funding everywhere? Sci Comm South West insights into the F-word

Author: Ola Michalec @Ola_Michalec The ‘F’ word we should learn to say loudly and clearly, without embarrassment: funding. As an ...

Raising the game – evolutionary education in a virtual museum

Palaeontology – the study of past life – is a key element of understanding biology, changes in life over time ...

Can YOU solve the city’s sustainability dilemma? Sci Comm South West delegates given a taste of urban planning

Author: Mollie Atherton (MSc Science Communication student at UWE Bristol) I've never decided the fate of a large slice of ...

Celebrating science communication talent in the South West

On 21st June, UWE Bristol's Science Communication Unit welcomed over 100 delegates to X Block on UWE Bristol's Frenchay campus ...

Writing Science – Student Magazine Work 2019

On the Writing Science module of the MSc in Science Communication, our students are tasked with developing their own science ...

Science on Air and on Screen – Student Videos 2019

As part of our Science on Air and on Screen module, students on the MSc in Science Communication develop video ...

Best of both worlds: the degree that means you don’t have to choose

At the height of the recession in 2008, deciding what to study at university took me a lot longer than ...

From MSc in Science Communication to Media Relations Manager…

I knew Science Communications was for me when I was doing my undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences and preferred talking ...

From PgCert in Practical Science Communication to Research Marketing Manager…

It was about six months into my research fellowship when it dawned on me that my real fascination was research ...

Calling all south-west science communicators!

Us south-western folk have much to be proud of. From Cornwall’s glistening beaches and Dartmoor’s breathtaking expanses, through to Bristol’s ...

From MSc in Science Communication to Science Writer…

When deciding where to study a Master’s degree, employability was a huge factor for me. I was keen to study ...

How to write a research synthesis report (or how I conquered my batteries mountain!)

The words on the screen are drifting in and out of focus... lithium-ion and sodium-ion, redox flow and redox couples… ...

Making an award winning podcast: podcasts can be a great way to do science communication and have a lot of fun!

You hear a lot of advice from people when you are thinking of setting up a podcast. People have all ...

Using creative tools to invite communities into public health decision-making

Photo credit: Ellie Shipman Ellie Shipman The Shape Our City research project and consultation offers a new way to engage ...

Location anywhere: New postgraduate programme launched by the Science Communication Unit

As 2018 draws to a close, it’s over 15 years since we launched our first postgraduate programme in Science Communication ...

“Britain is wet, droughts don’t happen here…” debunking myths on drought and water scarcity

The early part of the summer of 2018 saw the UK facing a heatwave and a lack of rain affecting ...

2018 Max Perutz Science Writing Competition – winner announced!

The winner of the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) 2018 Max Perutz Science Writing Competition has been announced. The competition, now ...

Shape our City, one street at a time

A new UWE project is working with artists and community organisations to creatively engage the public on issues around healthy ...

Guest Blog – Creating stories with porpoise: top tips for getting the most out of your journalism

When it comes to food, music and fashion, the interesting stuff often emerges at the interfaces between styles and cultures ...

Engineering Our Future – Event videos!

If you were an engineer, what would you do? 2712 children from across the South West answered this question with ...

Shape our City creative consultation is launched!

Living in cities impacts on our health and the health of the planet. If you were able to develop your ...

SCU at the Festival of Nature: a celebration shared by staff & students

May and June saw staff and students from the Science Communication Unit prepare for the Bristol and Bath Festival of ...

SCU to evaluate Royal Institution Christmas lectures

The Christmas Lectures are an internationally known landmark of the Science Communication landscape, and we refer to it in our ...

Women Like Me

Engineering our Future (this article first appeared on the Engineering our Future blog at UWE) Only 11% of engineers in the ...

South West Engineering Leaders Awards Exhibition and Public Event

Saturday 30th June 2018, 10am – 4pm UWE Bristol Exhibition and Conference Centre, North Entrance, Filton Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, BS34 ...

SCU’s Laura Fogg-Rogers scoops award for science teaching project

The Children as Engineers project led by Laura Fogg-Rogers from the Science Communication Unit at UWE Bristol has won a ...

Sci Comm Through the Lens – a science tour in Hong Kong

By Tay Aziz and Sophie Pavelle This time last year during our MSc Science Communication at UWE Bristol, we were ...
Bored cartoon man

May the Force be with you: Channelling boredom effectively

If you are, or have around you, a fan of Star Wars, you will have heard about the controversy over ...

How do local residents across England and Wales value Mining Heritage? Experimenting with the Q Method.

Margarida Sardo and Danielle Sinnett Dr Danielle Sinnett (Architecture and the Built Environment) and Dr Margarida Sardo (Science Communication Unit) ...

Renewable energy? We’re big fans!

The Science Communication Unit supported three successful bids to the British Council to participate in their Science in Schools initiative. Alongside ...

What the Postgraduate Certificate in Science Communication means to me

I am not a scientist. There, I said it. But I am a science communicator. A couple of decades ago, ...
Diver photographing shoal of fish

Under the Sea: My year as the European Rolex Scholar

Sometimes I am amazed at how life just seems to fit seamlessly into place. You have to take a step ...

Showtime! Fun Palaces – bringing science and the arts to the community

Standing behind the counter of Cheltenham Library one Saturday, a colleague beamed at me “Let’s do a Fun Palace”. I ...
Ben Sykes

MSc projects: science communication research in the real world

Clare Wilkinson During our MSc Science Communication at UWE Bristol we focus a lot of effort on supporting students to ...
Hannah Little

Welcoming Hannah Little, new lecturer in the Science Communication Unit

My name is Hannah Little. I’m a new lecturer at the Science Communication Unit. I will be teaching Science Communication ...
conference theatre

The BIG Picture

In July, I travelled to the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne for the BIG Event – an annual ...

Are women part of mankind?

The ‘leaky pipeline’ has been in the press again thanks to the now infamous Google staff memo  and the BBC2 ...
multicolour cogs

Engineering in Society – new module for engineering citizenship

Undergraduate student engineers at UWE Bristol will get the chance to learn about engineering citizenship from September. The Science Communication ...

Science Journalism Summer School 2017

Every two years, the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) hosts its one-day Science Journalism Summer School. The 2017 event ...
Cartoon man with binoculars

Be visible or vanish

After Cristina Rigutto’s informative seminar on post-publication digital engagement, we asked for her advice about blogging and how to increase ...
Cartoon Twitter bird

Tweet or perish – practical tips on post-publication digital engagement

Last month, Cristina Rigutto (communications consultant and social media editor at Public Understanding of Science Journal) came to speak to us, as part ...
image of books with caption never stop learning

Never say never again…

After my PhD viva in 2004, I promised myself I’d never again study for a qualification. Having gone straight from ...
Pen, pad and screwed up paper

Steven Pinker’s brilliant book teaches some useful lessons in science writing

Writing is easy until you learn how to do it. I still remember my first weeks as a trainee journalist ...
box with questions marks on

Thinking inside the Box(ED)

Watching scientists pitching their research projects felt like being in an episode of Dragons’ Den. I sat among a group ...
laptop, notebook and pen

Science communication: people, projects, events 2017

Our Science Communication Masterclass has been running very successfully for quite a few years now and like my colleagues, I’ve had ...
Martin Garrad with Luckwell primary school children

FET Award: STEM outreach at Luckwell Primary

This year, I have been lucky enough to receive a FET Award to promote STEM at a local primary school ...

SynBio – in need of public engagement

In a recent book review for JCOM, I outlined a few of the ethical, social and legal issues that make ...
ClairCity project logo

Communicating science across Europe

Since May 2016, the Science Communication Unit has been involved with a four year, Europe-wide research project ClairCity. Laura Fogg ...
Photograph of nuts and bolts

Researching images on social media – nuts and bolts

Images and videos are pervasive online, these days, web articles include at least one image or video. On Twitter, Facebook ...

Shall we talk about robots and public engagement? Ten years on.

2017 marks the ten-year anniversary since I started working on the Talking Robots project with my former SCU colleagues Karen ...
Blank book with letter rising up from the pages

New and notable – further selected publications from the Science Communication Unit

Last week we posted details of our work on environmental policy publications as well as our research on outreach and ...
Open book on desk

New and notable – selected publications from the Science Communication Unit

The last 6 months have been a busy time for the Unit, we are now fully in the swing of ...

Innovating university outreach

Corra Boushel Through funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and internal backing, the Science Communication Unit has ...

Postgraduate Science Communication students get stuck in on ‘Science in Public Spaces’

Emma Weitkamp & Erik Stengler September saw the lecturing staff at the Science Communication Unit welcoming our new MSc Science ...
Open book

What IS storytelling? What IS NOT storytelling?

What IS storytelling? What IS NOT storytelling? These two questions opened the 9th conference on “Storytelling: Global Reflections on Narrative” ...
Winding road

The long and winding road to science journalism

How do you get your first job in science communication? That’s not a straightforward question to answer – when it ...
Baby gumming a watermelon slice

Baby-led, puree, Annabel Karmel and me? When science impacts on the choices we make in parenting

How we make choices as consumers, patients, parents and members of the public has, of course, long been of interest ...
Erik Stengler, Hannah Conduit and Jeff Dawson, at the Saving the Mountain Chicken Frog stand, Bristol Festival of Nature

Tackling the challenge of engaging with drought and frogs

SCU was well represented at the Bristol Festival of Nature (BFON) in June, with Associate Professor Emma Weitkamp manning the ...
Radio broadcast

MSc Broadcasting Science students in action!

As part of our MSc in Science Communication students have the option to choose a Broadcasting Science module (‘Science on ...
Creative Research Communication book cover

Communicating research: do we need to be more creative?

Clare Wilkinson and Emma Weitkamp are Associate Professors based at the Science Communication Unit, University of the West of England, ...

An Ethical Roboticist: the journey so far

What do robots have to do with ethics? And how do you end up with the job of "roboethicist"? Prof ...

What happens to sci comms graduates?

Lots of people are interested to find out what our Masters in Science Communication and Postgraduate Certificate in Practical Science ...
man sitting at computer

Science Writing Competition now open

It's been a busy few weeks in the office getting ready for the UWE Bristol SCU Science Writing Competition 2016 ...
Smartphone screen showing apps

It’s 2016: Are we communicating effectively?

Corra Boushel is a project coordinator at the SCU. A recent experience with an organisation I won’t name left me ...
Cartoon hands with collboration, unite and similar written on them

Engaging with strangers

 What happens when social scientists and natural scientists start to work together? Clare Wilkinson summarises her recent research. As a ...

Behind the scenes at Bristol Museum

Text by Andy Ridgway, Senior Lecturer in Science Communication, images by Marta Palau Franco, euRathlon project manager. “Artists love this ...
science fiction landscape with moon and spacecraft

Do science fiction films teach us about science?

Science fiction and fantasy films like Star Wars, The Hunger Games and Interstellar are hugely popular, with a reach for ...

Masters and beyond with the SCU

Clare Wilkinson explains some of the programmes that UWE Bristol offers in Science Communication, and how coming back to school ...

The story behind the cameras: filming robots

In 2013, just as I was finishing my Masters in Science Communication at UWE Bristol, I was asked to help ...
cartoon chemist and test tubes

Science communicators need to get it: science isn’t fun.

I am writing on the flight that takes me to a conference in Warsaw, which will nicely draw to a ...
Bristol suspension bridge and hot air balloons

Bristol Bright Night summary

On Friday 25th September 2015 Bristol was one of the many European cities celebrating research and researchers. The European Researchers’ Night ...

Student opportunities at the Latitude Festival

One of the nice things we’re able to do from time to time is offer our Masters students work experience ...
Robots v Animals logo with cartoon robot and monkey

What I learnt working with robots, children and animals

Put two robotics researchers in a small room with a bad tempered snake, 30 children and a zoologist. And make ...

Knowledge is power?

Research shows that audiences at a health science festival prefer lectures. We all know the debates about deficit versus dialogue, ...
Blog spelled out in Scrabble tiles

Welcome to the Science Communication Unit Blog

Hello new readers and welcome to the first post of the Science Communication Unit Blog. If you don’t know much ...