Making science accessible to lay audiences.
Conversations with the experts - Julia Rizzo, Head of Science Communication - Laimburg Research Centre
Welcome back to another episode of Conversations with the Experts.
This week's theme is: Making science accessible to lay audiences.
This week, I spoke to Julia Rizzo, Head of Science Communication at the Laimburg Research Centre.
Julia is a professional in institutional communication with solid experience in science communication, branding and communication strategy.
The core of her practice lies in the ability to tell stories.
At Laimburg Research Centre Julia is in charge of the communication strategy implementation and planning.
The research center focuses on a wide range of agricultural research activities, including Agriculture, Smart Farming, Food Quality and Food Technologies.
In conducting such a wide range of research activities, the Laimburg Research Centre aims to support local farmers, companies and startups across the entire food production chain. It includes everything from the cultivation process to the finished product.
Through applied research, it improves agricultural sustainability, and contribute to the overall advancement of agricultural and food science.
Now let's dive into Julia's perspective on today's topic!
Can you tell us about your journey in science communication and how you became the Head of the Science Communication team at Laimburg Research Centre?
Julia Rizzo: I studied biology in Rome and realised relatively early that my future wasn’t in the lab. I pursued a Master's degree in journalism and science communication.
I began my career in institutional communication, followed by pharmaceutical marketing, and finally, in science communication.
I have been working at Laimburg Research Centre for almost seven years, initially as a specialist in press relations and research project communication, and now as the head of the scicomm-team.
What are the key challenges you face when communicating complex scientific concepts to a non-specialist audience?
Julia Rizzo: One of the key challenges in communicating complex scientific concepts to a lay audience is keeping the content both accurate and engaging without becoming too technical and avoiding oversimplification of scientific topics.
Also, each platform, whether it be social media, a blog, or a formal presentation to policy makers, requires a unique approach to effectively convey the message.
Another challenge is is keeping the audience engaged and interested.
Scientific concepts can often be abstract or difficult to visualize, so finding ways to make the content relatable and visually appealing is essential.
This might involve using analogies, storytelling, and visual aids such as animations and videos.
What approaches do you employ to make scientific content engaging and accessible for audiences who might not have a scientific background?
Julia Rizzo: It may sound redundant, but “the key message is key”.
With digital communication, and even more so with social media, all target audiences are constantly overwhelmed.
The challenge is to stand out, so that your message resonates strongly with your target audience.
Whenever you communicate something, ask yourself, "Why should this matter to someone?".
I believe this is where the best practice in science communication lies, whether conducted by practitioners or scientists.
Skills in copywriting, photography, videography, and graphic design follow as secondary but important elements and could be outsourced.
Another important strategy in science communication is explaining the processes of scientific research.
It's important to convey that not every question leads to a definitive answer; often, research uncovers more questions instead.
This understanding fosters more balanced expectations among non-experts and helps keep trust in science.
Considering varying levels of scientific literacy and cultural backgrounds, how do you tailor your communication strategies to address different types of audiences, for instance policy makers versus the general public?
Julia Rizzo: Once again, the key message is the starting point. Then, we must consider and evaluate for each target audience, the communication style and the most suitable channels.
Ideally, you should know your target audience at best, describing details of each "personas," seeking feedback from the audience, and engaging with them to better understand their needs.
Realistically, this is not always possible, especially when resources (financial, human, and time) are limited.
To effectively manage multi-target communication, it’s essential to build a well-structured strategy.
This means setting a few (1-3, not more) strategic communication objectives that are specific to the target audience and then focus on a limited number of communication actions aimed at achieving these objectives, with clear KPIs and evaluation methods.
With agriculture being a key focus at Laimburg Research Centre, what is your approach to conveying the importance of research in areas like climate change and biodiversity to stakeholders and policy makers?
Julia Rizzo: At Laimburg Research Centre, we're all about bridging the gap between scientific research and real-world agriculture in South Tyrol, involving our stakeholders from the very beginning.
Every year, we invite over 130 representative organisations from the South Tyrolean agricultural and food processing industries to submit project proposals and shape together with our researchers our activity programme.
This process is also relevant to our science communication for multiple reasons: Gathering local knowledge allows us to select the most relevant topics for communication, ensuring our content resonates with our audience.
By interacting with our partners' communication and press officers, we are open to collaborations and strengthen our network.
Local input enriches our comprehension of complex scientific concepts, allowing us to convey them more effectively.
This process enables us to foresee and address potential communication challenges proactively.
What role do visual storytelling tools such as animation, infographics, and explainer videos play in conveying science and how do you implement these to your communication strategy?
Julia Rizzo: "An image is worth more than a thousand words".
This is why visual communication plays an important role in conveying science, in particular when communicating complex topics.
At Laimburg Research Centre we are working on a strategy to foster the communication with short videos.
Here you can find our actual video-playlist on YouTube.
Our challenge is to find a way to produce many small videos by optimizing our resources. In the future, we’d love to improve also our communication using animations.
How do you measure the impact of your science communication activities? What metrics or feedback mechanisms do you use to evaluate success?
Julia Rizzo: To measure the impact of our science communication activities, we employ a multi-approach that includes both qualitative and quantitative metrics.
We adopt classic Key Performance Indicators such as website analytics, social media metrics and sentiment analysis of media coverage, etc.
But above all, there’s one tool that gives us a real perception on what we’re achieving with our work: citizen surveys.
We made one in 2022 and are going to repeat it in 2027 (with basically the same questions to have a comparison).
These surveys provide us with direct feedback from our target audience.
They help us assess public understanding, engagement, and perception of the institution and the scientific content we disseminate.
It’s important to perceive not only if the message reaches effectively the audience but also if the message is understood and resonates with the community.
In your opinion, what role do researchers play in science communication?
Julia Rizzo: For many researchers, their work is limited to making scientific discoveries. However, only focusing on the scietific process isn’t enough.
The role of communication professionals (within an institution for example) is increasingly shifting from the communicator to the supporter, helping researchers communicate their own work.
After all, the researchers themselves are the faces, voices, and protagonists of their own work. Direct communication is more authentic and increases public trust in science.
Lastly, what advice would you give to researchers and academics facing the challenge of making their work understandable and relevant to lay people?
Julia Rizzo: Talk to your audience.
Don’t stay in the background but look for opportunities to exchange e to have a dialog with the public: during events, but also with a wider audience on social media.
If you have the possibility, seek for support by scicomm practitioners in your organization.
Take every chance you can to practice, practice, practice. Communication is everyone’s job!
This last question brings us to the end of this week’s article.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Learning opportunities
📺Videos: The art of making ideas accessible in science communication
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Whenever you are ready I can help you find the best ways to explain science and communicate environmental issues through engaging animations and infographics.