Coordinated Opportunities for Advanced Leadership and Engagement in Science Communication in Europe

COALESCE will consolidate, further develop, and mainstream generated knowledge and connections on science communication to build up the European Competence Centre for Science Communication. To achieve measurable and sustainable long-term impact of the Centre, project objectives will pivot on co-creation and co-design building on cooperative relationships with multiple stakeholders including scientific and journalist networks, as well as university alliances. COALESCE operates in relation to international, national and regional hubs and builds on an interdisciplinary approach. It will demonstrate the means for rapid mobilisation of scicomm in times of crisis while fighting misinformation and engendering trust in science. Supporting all of this will be an accessible library of critical resources, toolkits, handbooks and training opportunities to R&I actors across the ERA.

The COALESCE project ensures the effectiveness of and best practices for science communication through a concerted and focused effort made by an experienced, knowledgeable, and well-connected consortium. We build on and add to already existing forms of excellence in science communication, public engagement, and co-creation practices developed from the joint efforts of the coordinators of all previous SwafS-19 calls and contributions from other key partners. COALESCE continues and strengthens connections between academic researchers and practitioners representing the state of the art of scicomm in Europe and defines and trains on best practices within Europe and beyond.

The consortium represents several key features to make it well positioned in relation to the call as it: 1. Integrates universities and higher education providers with SMEs; 2. Connects participatory engagement methodologies and journalism practices with new channels for scicomm; 3. Participates with agendas of national scientific bodies; and 4. Is supported by existing scicomm reference and university alliance networks.