SciCommRescue

Description

SciCommRescue is a website that provides information to researchers and communications professionals about completing research-communications projects. The information accumulates in a discussion forum, where researchers and professionals answer questions specific to certain locations, institutions, and funding packages, or offer advice based on experiences. The project would provide static resources, which would be updated regularly, about different types of projects, pricing, and creating a contract. It would also publish articles on subjects related to the evolution of research communications, and communications mediums as they relate to academic research.

Technologies used

This project is meant to evolve what is presently a LinkedIn group and a series of articles created by myself. What I'd like to see is the project as its own website, with a discussion forum. I've used InDesign to create a PDF mock-up of the front page of the website, which promotes all the different aspects of the project.

Obstacles

I was unable to recruit additional team members onto the project. I believe this was because I didn't advertise the specific types of work people could contribute well-enough, or I didn't imagine what possibilities others might add onto it. Thus the project perhaps did not sound appealing.

Accomplishments

Creating the content for the home page of the website quickly was a challenge, but easy because I'm still excited about the idea of helping researchers and communications professionals connect. I quickly came up with the "Active Members" examples, but the ideas for the examples came quite naturally, and I believe that's because this idea is still a good idea. I can say I'm proud that I've persisted in discussing the value of facilitating connections between researchers and communications professionals right up to present time, so that I could submit the idea to the CERN webfest.

Learnings

I've learned that I'm not the only one thinking about ideas like this. I've met some people that I hope to have continuing conversations with about connecting researchers with communications professionals. I've learned more about CERN as an international research institution, partly because of the very fun quiz challenge, but also just by seeing the range of projects and people involved in this webfest and previous webfests, exhibiting just how broad reaching CERN's influence is in the world.

Next steps

I would like to find an internationally recognized research institution to house the project. My idea of how to make this happen is to contact researchers, research groups or administrators about submitting a funding application that would allow the individual or group to run the project continuously. If I where to work on a funding application with someone at CERN, for example, I might suggest applying for funding from Volkswagen Stiftung, which has a page about funding for knowledge transfer and communications.