An update from the DIISR on the Inspiring Australia report in action

I’m posting the following article about Inspiring Australia actions on behalf of DIISR. I’ve reported through the year about IA activities which ASC members have been involved in or should know about. It’s good to see the department is moving to a regular means of communicating its activities.

Jesse Shore

National president

How are we Inspiring Australia?

An update from the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research on the Inspiring Australia report in action

“Australian Science Communicators welcomes Inspiring Australia, a report which set the agenda for science communication for the nation.”

– Dr Jesse Shore, President, and Mr Tim Thwaites, Immediate Past-President, Australian Science Communicators, February 2010

Public engagement with the sciences is essential to achieving an innovative society with a technologically skilled workforce, a scientifically literate community and well informed decision makers.

Now is the time to motivate and inspire Australians! The Australian Government, in collaboration with Australia’s top thinkers in science and innovation, teachers, journalists and other science communicators have developed a national strategy for engagement with the sciences: Inspiring Australia. The Inspiring Australia <link to http://www.innovation.gov.au/inspiringaustralia strategy, released in February 2010, aims to build a strong, open relationship between science and society, underpinned by effective communication of science and its uses.

To see the goals of the strategy achieved, partnerships between science, industry, community organisations and governments throughout Australia are essential. We invite you to get involved and benefit from all that Inspiring Australia has to offer.

Inspiring Australia has hit the ground running. Since February we’ve been building partnerships and developing activities to engage Australia in the sciences. An Inspiring Australia State and Territory Officers Working Group has been established to enhance collaboration between governments. This has already resulted in the joint funding of Inspiring Australia officers in a number of states and territories, jointly funded events around Australia and the drafting of a Framework of Principles for Science Communication Initiatives.

National Science Week, now under the banner of Inspiring Australia, was a huge success in August this year with 1.6 million people participating and the prestigious Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science will continue with announcements to be made on November 17.

Two groups of experts have also been created, one looking at ways to strengthen the media’s role in communicating science, and the other establishing a system for evaluating science engagement activities. Both working groups will deliver their final reports in November.

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About Jesse Shore

Jesse Shore is passionate about engaging the community with science and in looking for ways to weave together the arts and sciences. He has been developing science based exhibitions and events since 1984, and was President of the Australian Science Communicators from 2010-2012. His business, Prismatic Sciences, produced five travelling exhibitions for the Royal Australian Chemical Institute for the 2011 International Year of Chemistry and he manages the ongoing national tour. He previously worked at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney as an exhibition project leader and Senior Curator of sciences. While at the museum he was one of the founders of the Ultimo Science Festival, a major National Science Week activity. He is currently collaborating with an artist to create artworks which have a science slant.

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