I was always curious to know what a sabbatical visit to another university would be like. I thought about it multiple times during my undergraduate and Masters degrees, but for one reason or another it never felt right. When I finished my Masters, I regretted that deeply because I thought I would never have that chance again. Well, I had that opportunity this last semester by visiting the UK.
I’m currently doing a PhD in New Media at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and I’m trying to develop tools to help curators of university biological collections communicate science. You see, in Portugal, we have loads of biological collections in tiny rooms in various universities, which serve as a research tool and are often managed by researchers or lecturers. You can find them in multiple universities spread across the country, however the curators are often not aware of the other existing collections. So, as you can imagine, doing public engagement and trying to build a link or a network between all of these collections can be very challenging, but that’s what I’m trying to do.
In the hope of expanding my knowledge in both Science Communication and public engagement with science, I did some research on projects related to mine, and potential universities that I could visit. One day, I was checking my emails and the various newsletters and discovered the Science Communication Unit (SCU) at UWE. I was instantly drawn to it because we don’t have a dedicated Science Communication research unit at my university (or in almost any universities in Portugal). So I emailed Dr Laura Hobbs, who was PI of a project, ‘Accessing natural history collections’, that was very much aligned with mine and she agreed to work together almost instantly. Later on, Dr David Judge also became involved in my project.
As a result, 13 semi-structured interviews with curators and collection managers in the UK were conducted and will be used to explore a fuller picture of university biological collections in science communication, alongside similar investigation in Portugal. In May 2025, some of the analysed data will be presented at NatSCA’s Annual Conference in order to provide recommendations for public engagement of science for UK curators and managers. We are also working on a journal article that combines the results from the UK and Portugal to be submitted soon.
I could not have guessed I would be so welcomed in the SCU 2C010 office amongst the other staff and PhD students in the team. I made so many friends there – David, Ria, Achintya, Jane, Henry, Jelena. I felt really supported by Laura and David during my visit and the research project went unbelievably well. I got to explore the UWE Bristol Frenchay campus, and I even saw a Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus) during my stay in the UK!
As part of my stay I also had the chance to audit a module on Science and Society which is part of the MSc in Science Communication, where I met so many lovely students and learned a bit more theory about the field. During my time at the SCU I met a lot of wonderful people who work in UK museums and are very passionate about their work.
It’s been three months since I left and although I don’t miss the weather, I really miss working with all those amazing people and our coffee and lunch breaks together!
By Beatriz Vieite, visiting PhD student from the University of Aveiro, Portugal.