A Gateway to French Research

Translated by Nina Fink Publié le
A Gateway to French Research
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French researchers are looking to reaffirm their relevance to society. Currently their accomplishments are little known outside of academia. As a result, there has been a push to make their work more approachable and accessible. Universities in particular are eager to help their PhD candidates reach a broader audience. And if that means upending convention, so be it.

The Three Minute Thesis

The Three Minute Thesis competition is a race against the clock for PhD students. EducPros finds out how this event trains researchers to make their work accessible to the public.

Inspired by the success of the competition’s first French edition in 2013, fifty schools jumped on the bandwagon. France’s University Presidents Organization and the CNRS organized the 2014 event. So how do French schools prepare their academics for stand-up ?

Many universities call on actors to “help candidates reassess their approach. The competition is beside the point. The goal is to train PhD students,” explains Nicolas Beck, head of scientific literacy at the University of Lorraine. Participants work in multidisciplinary groups to get comfortable communicating with the uninitiated. For science communication agency Agent Majeur founder Alexia Benichou, “the goal is to bring fresh perspective to their work to make it as accessible as possible.”

Schools allocate program funds in different ways. Some opt for agencies or actors. Others handle communications in-house or hire consultants. Some schools outsource video production. Universities that don’t receive many applications can afford to train everyone. However, the most successful schools reserve the full training program for students with the best presentations.

Read the article (in French)

Rediscovering Research

EducPros talks society and research with Xavier Py, professor at the University of Perpignan Via Domitia.

Is there a need to raise public awareness regarding research ?

If you want your research to be recognized and benefit society, you have to make it accessible. That means communicating with young people, retirees, journalists, professionals and other researchers.

International exposure is key. At conferences, researchers represent their home countries. The government also wants to strengthen ties between research institutions and schools and expose more young people to science. We want them to get involved and not see us as Martians. Our work has to be translated into layman’s terms in order to reach the public.

Researchers also consult, oftentimes for the government. They look at the legal side of researching environmental and security topics like Fukushima.

So scientific research has value beyond technology transfers ?

People talk about research’s academic and economic value but overlook its societal value. You can’t study water from a technical standpoint while ignoring geopolitics and resource sharing. Researchers have to look at legal, sociological, historical and even religious factors because we’re not just studying environmental impact. We also consider security and people’s well being.

Read the article (in French)

Opening Sources

Antoine Blanchard founded the Deuxième labo with Elifsu Sabuncu in 2009. Their goal ? Promote French research through services like scientific monitoring, strategic consulting and event planning.

What led to your study on the lack of visibility in French research ?

Visibility is key to understanding the value of research and the French public is in the dark. Who are our researchers ? What are they working on ? Which institution is behind a given project ? Where can I find out ?

What is the study’s goal ?

It targets the entire research community: researchers, funders, administrators, librarians, heads of institutions, ministerial staff and others. We wanted to identify the obstacles to progress. Information loss and the redundancy are real problems. We show that you can get more information while filling out fewer forms.

Does France need to overhaul the way research is managed ?

The current policies perpetuate the myth that all the best research happens in North America. The data exists in France but access is limited. We need to look at solutions that have succeeded abroad.

For example, the UK’s Gateway to Research offers public access to data on all the grants awarded since 2006. We could make a huge qualitative leap with a system like that and pave the way for evidence-based research policies. Concrete data on project funding, findings and impact could also improve the way research is managed.

Read the article (in French)

Translated by Nina Fink | Publié le