Two new policy briefs on the state of science communication in Austria

In December 2021, the science researcher and former President of the European Research Council (ERC) Helga Nowotny pleaded for a further opening of science to society in order to counteract the pronounced skepticism about science in Austria. In the policy brief Ways out of the pandemic: redefining the relationship between science and society, Nowotny underlines the need to catch up in terms of science communication and recommends a series of measures to develop an overarching, coordinated and sustainable strategy. These include, among other things, that research on and about science communication should be part of every future strategy and that there should be a stronger exchange between researchers and science journalists.

Nowotny's paper was expanded in March 2022 by a publication by the social scientists Johannes Starkbaum and Thomas König (Institute for Advanced Studies) and the science journalist Klaus Taschwer. In their Policy Brief Impulse for a restart of science communication in Austria, they advocate an Austria-wide study with stakeholders from research, education, media, research funding, the public sector, business and civil society in order to map the current state of science communication in Austria and to define further steps . They recommend a survey and evaluation of current science communication measures and a study on European best practice initiatives.