Inspiring Australia update: Topical, tropical, science communication

Q. How do you develop a strategy to strengthen science communication across a large region of the country?

A. You engage science experts, develop partnerships and map out a range of recommendations to achieve tangible outcomes.

This is exactly what has been accomplished in the recently released Science Engagement and Tropical Australia: Building a Prosperous and Sustainable Future for the North report.

Tropical Northern Australia faces important challenges alongside incredible opportunities. A unique natural environment, diverse indigenous culture and rapid economic expansion all point to the need for effective science engagement. Topical issues such as climate change, health and community fragmentation need to be addressed.  This report is essential reading for scientists and science communicators, not only in the Tropics, but other parts of the Nation. We encourage you to read the report and contribute your comments.

Here’s the announcement of the report from Inspiring Australia:

Science Engagement and Tropical Australia Report

Inspiring Australia is pleased to announce the release of the Science Engagement and Tropical Australia: Building a Prosperous and Sustainable Future for the North report.

Commissioned by Inspiring Australia, led by the Cairns Institute and developed by experts from the science community in Tropical Australia, the report provides a strategy to strengthen science communications in the nation’s tropical regions. As such, the report is essential reading for those involved in the sciences within Australia’s tropics.

The report provides 20 Recommendations across seven themes:

  • Building science literacy for all tropical Australians
  • Shifting science engagement cultures at the project and publication level
  • Building durable and trusted regional science brokerage and partnership arrangements
  • Forging effective science engagement in the Indigenous domain
  • Building science partnerships at the industry/sectoral level to turbo-charge innovation
  • Ensuring science messages from the tropics engage southern Australia
  • Engaging tropical Australia in national science messages.

Science Engagement and Tropical Australia is the third expert working group report released by Inspiring Australia, following the Science and the Media and Developing an Evidence Base for Science Engagement reports. Over the coming months, Inspiring Australia will be releasing three further expert working group reports into Indigenous, Desert and Marine science communication.

For further information on the tropical expert working group and their report, please email Inspiring.Australia@innovation.gov.au.

This Inspiring Australia initiative is supported by the Australian Government through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education in partnership with the Australian Science Communicators.

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