The 2022 COMPUTE Summer Retreat took place on August 23rd to 24th, lunch to lunch, at Hotel Rusthallargården in Arild on the beautiful Kullen peninsula. The topic was “Effective science communications”, and the program was targeted at both PhD students and researchers.

At the core of the retreat was a workshop "Effective science communications: How to frame and communicate your research to different audiences".  The workshop was given by Dr Dan Csontos (Elevate Scientific).

There was also be ample time for networking and a poster session in the evening. All PhD students were expected to present a popular science poster about their research.

Workshop Abstract

Scientists need to communicate their scientific findings, to both academics and non-academics alike. But how do you select, synthesize, interpret, and contextualize your research to different audiences? In this workshop I will introduce you to framing, narrative, and linguistics-based techniques that you can use for all of your communications, be it for planning and writing of grant proposals, scientific papers, or talks to different audiences. I will illustrate key points by on one hand guiding you in planning an elevator pitch (which you’ll get to practice during the workshop!), and dissecting the make-up of scientific papers.

Note: All participants are asked to bring an abstract for a paper or their current project of at most 250 words.

Poster session

All PhD students are expected to bring a poster to the retreat, preferably in vertical format. For the more senior participants this is optional. You should bring posters that are understandable to students and scientists from completely different fields and members of the public. You can use scientific terms if it is necessary but make sure to introduce them well. The posters are meant to be an exercise in scientific communication and will also help you connect with fellow COMPUTE members. If you do not have time to prepare such a popular science poster, you can bring a regular scientific poster.

It is not necessary to use the Lund University templates for the poster. If you did not register for a poster but want to bring one anyway, you can do that.

Biography Dan Csontos

Dan directs and manages all of Elevate’s activities, including facilitating research strategies and collaborations, framing of large research projects and proposals, support in developing grant applications and high-impact research papers, and editorial and creative direction of science-communication solutions. Prior to founding Elevate, Dan was an editor with the international journals Nature and Nature Physics. He holds a PhD in nanophysics from Lund University.

Programme

23 August

• 10:00: Bus from Lund
• 12:00: Lunch
• 13:00: Welcome
• 13:30: Workshop:
  • Role of, and challanges in, science communication
  • Planning and framing communications
• 14:45: Break
• 15:15: Workshop

  • Interactive breakout groups – develop and practice an elevator pitch

• 16:00: Workshop
  • Using narrative techniques in scientific papers, grant proposals, and presentations
• 16:30: Group Photo
• 16:45: Check-in and free time
• 18:00: Dinner
• 20:00: Poster Session
• 21:00: Mingle

24 August

• 07:00 - 09:00: Breakfast and check-out
• 09:00: Workshop
  • Anatomy of scientific papers
• 10:00: Break
• 10:30: Workshop

  • Harnessing linguistic principles to write with flow

• 11:30: Goodbye and Poster Prize
• 12:00: Lunch
• 13:30: Bus back to Lund