Team:Vilnius-Lithuania/Communication
COMMUNICATION
Introduction
Our team believes that science is not only for scientists; it is crucial for the development of society. Thus, a dialogue should be held between scientific society and the general public. That is why we could not imagine our iGEM project without science communication. This year we aimed to build and strengthen our connection with society via various media platforms and educational activities organized by us or partners. Below you can read all about our communications and a brief of educational activities. Educational activities are presented in greater detail on the Education page.
Communication
As we know, publicity, especially in news media, is one of the best ways to spread the message and engage with our target audience. Therefore, we aimed to promote our main educational events, “6th SynBio sense” and “Sense Lab '', widely and to spread ideas about synthetic biology. Every mention makes it easier to recognize the team’s name and helps raise awareness about synthetic biology.
To succeed, we followed a comprehensive communication strategy - we advertised ourselves on various media platforms. Moreover, our team contacted people with great audiences - science communicators, opinion-makers, asking to share our communication messages. This ensured that both life sciences enthusiasts and people from different areas would have a chance to acquaint themselves with synthetic biology.
Our team had close contact with the Vilnius University Communication and Marketing department, GoVilnius - an official development agency of Vilnius city and Blue Oceans PR agency. This ensured an easier spread of the news - professionals working there gave us contacts from various media channels, offered editorship for our articles, and shared our messages on mass and social media sites.
Moreover, while communicating about “6th SynBio sense” and “Sense Lab,” we learned that no paid promotion would be superior to thoughtful communication. While thinking about the reach of the audience, it is crucial to find places where the target group gathers. For example, we posted invitations to a “Sense Lab: smell” event in a specific Facebook group where people interested in perfumery gather. This resulted in great attendance and encouraged us to follow this approach while promoting future events.
Find more about our communication below.
Interview at “LRT Klasika”
We were invited to the talk show “Ryto Allegro” at national broadcaster LRT (eng. Lithuanian Radio and Television) radio station “Klasika” to present our project idea, iGEM contest, and crowdfunding initiative. Our host Karolina Panto invited us to dive deeper into the iGEM contest cycle and the thought process of deciding which idea to develop as our project. We also touched on the relevance and socioeconomic roots of our AmeBye idea. Finally, we presented the current state of our project, what tools we are using and missing and how crowdfunding can help us succeed.
href="https://www.lrt.lt/mediateka/irasas/2000158704/ryto-allegro-trimitas-kuria-nauja-skambesio-estetika" target=”_blank”>here. It also was broadcasted again on main LRT radio station’s talk show “Ryto garsai” here.
Interview at “Žinių radijas”
We were invited to the “Žinių radijas” (eng. Radio of knowledge) show “The future belongs to those” where the host talks to scientists of various disciplines about the latest scientific advances. We presented the iGEM competition on the show, talked about synthetic biology, and discussed its possible applications. We also presented our team’s focus - infectious disease amebiasis, and how the AmeBye project could contribute to solving the problem.
The radio show was broadcasted on the radio and its recording can be found here
Global Lithuanian Awards - For Solid Voice in Global Science Community
At the end of the year 2020, Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM teams received a Global Lithuanian Award For the unification of global Lithuanian students of life sciences for the victories in prestigious annual science competition iGEM. Global Lithuanian Awards are national awards in Lithuania acknowledging and rewarding the remarkable achievements of Lithuanian diaspora professionals and their contribution to the economy, science, and culture of Lithuania as well as its global standing.
Due to the global pandemic, awarding ceremony was canceled therefore at the beginning of October 2021 our team, along with representatives from various year iGEM team representatives, met with the Executive Director of Global Lithuanian Leaders Aušra Kukelkaitė and the Director of Marius Jakulis Jason foundation Kotryna Stankutė-Jaščemskienė. We presented iGEM, AmeBye, learned more about initiatives for enabling young people to gain international experience and exchange each others’ contacts for further collaborations.
Interview at “Labas rytas, Lietuva”
To spread the news about our educational platform, “6th SynBio Sense,” we managed to participate in the national broadcaster’s morning show “Labas rytas, Lietuva” (eng. Good morning, Lithuania). We began our talk by explaining synthetic biology, its purpose, and what this unique field of science can bring to the world. Then we justified the need for the augmented reality-based education platform, instructions for usage, and its benefits. During the interview, the platform’s website was shown parallel to the TV studio scene. The interview can be accessed here.
Crowdfunding
Most of the iGEM teams have experienced the burden of marketing and seeking sponsorships. Life sciences experiments usually require special supplies to prepare and analyze research samples and inevitably cost many dollars. The prices of experiments go up if unusual, custom-synthesized, or specially isolated substances are used. Moreover, to carry out life science experiments, special equipment is needed. Typical lab research requires at least several pieces of expensive instrumentation, which adds up to the significant sum of the projects. Despite a number of sponsors supporting our team for several years, we noticed a lack of additional funds due to a complicated financial situation after the pandemic. Thus, we decided to start a crowdfunding campaign to gather the money needed for our laboratory work and educational activities.
The Vilnius University fund offered their help and consulted us on how to succeed in crowdfunding. We created an informational video and held a social media campaign inviting people to support our project to reach our goal. For a month, the VU fund and our team actively invited people to help us reach our goal. Each person that contributed financially received an info-pack on our project, a virtual thank you card, and fun printables. This was our way of saying thank you to contributors and informally educating people.
Find more information here.
Overview of Education and communication
Quality and effective education is impossible without communication - it is needed to reach various target audiences, access expert knowledge, and share the results of our works. Thus, we used every public and communication opportunity to spread the message about synthetic biology.
This year, noticing the increase of fake news regarding scientific research, we wanted to bring some evidence-based information and contribute to a more reasonable discussion. During our brainstorming sessions, we attempted to notice how to stand out in science communication and education among all other constantly emerging initiatives in Lithuania and in the iGEM. Although the planning process was based on extensive internet research, consultations with various specialists enriched us the most. Consultations were especially beneficial while deciding how to approach formal education. As our team members had different experiences, opinions, and visions on education, the professional outlook has helped us establish direction.
Our activities included various audiences that can be seen below:
We wanted to be versatile and open-minded with our activities. Therefore we aimed to question topics that are often left behind and lack coverage. We paid attention to bioethical topics, like designer babies, genome editing, economic and social impacts of GMOs on agriculture community, in various ways during our “Sense Lab” activities and encouraged the public to be active and participate. As a result, we have observed and moderated many fulfilling and enriching discussions.
While creating tools and organizing activities, we wanted them to be used and implemented by target audiences in the long-term perspective. To find such solutions, we did thorough research and consulted experts from different fields. For example, education experts advised to create the tools for teachers as comprehensively as possible - so they could be used instantly without any additional preparations or research. This way we made a full package for implementation of the 6th SynBio Sense in schools. Dialogue about synthetic biology, GMO’s, gene editing will be possible years after our project as the solid basis is established.
We also wanted to reach communities that are often unreasonably underestimated. Therefore we considered our inclusivity practices thoroughly and paid special attention to adapting the “6th SynBio sense” to various impairments - reading difficulties, autism spectrum disorder, blindness. More information on how we succeeded can be found on the Inclusivity page.
To conclude, our education and communication activities ensured a reach of a broad audience. This year’s communication strategy allowed us to acquaint thousands of people with major synthetic biology ideas and the tools we created are to build a solid educational base in the long-term perspective.