How to develop a science communication approach for new institutes

Let’s say you work at a new institute or academic organization, and you need some help getting started with science communication. Or even when you’re at an established organization and you want to professionalize your science communication. This blog is for you – it helps you to work through the first months. Of course it’s a bit generic, but if you’re stuck or have additional questions, you know where to find us.

Step 0: Building on initial communication efforts

Your institute is probably operational for some time when you are reading this, and it’s likely that communication efforts have also started to develop. Some of those channels and efforts may not have been part of an overarching communication plan, but since these are so basic to communication they can quickly be absorbed into a developing strategy.

In the following segments we explain how you create a strategy by developing the communication goals (Step 1), access to the relevant audiences (Step 2) and means and carriers of communication (Step 3).

Step 1: Capturing who and what your institute is

To be able to set up a solid communication plan, you first need to capture the essence of who and what your organization is. That’s why you should start by looking at this question from two sides; externally to what kind of space an institute like yours could occupy, and internally to what our driving story is, your Theory of Change. Various use cases that we encounter can also help and feed into this process.

Internal perspective

Internally, you can start by setting up the Theory of Change (ToC) document, based on your goals, mission, vision, activities, possibilities and opportunities. This will then make it possible to write a narrative, perhaps a white paper, as the basis for communication. (We will probably write a whole blog about just this ToC process at some point.)

Using the input from the ToC and white paper, it’s possible to create a basic SWOT analysis for communication. This SWOT will indicate points of interest that you need to address in relation to your communication efforts.

External perspective

For a different perspective, it’s valuable to look at other organizations and institutes that have comparable positions, scope or research. By researching or asking these organizations about their stakeholders, communication goals, lessons etc, you can get a valuable perspective on the opportunities for your organization.

Together, these internal and external views will help you to figure out what your goals are for communication, who the audiences are that belong to these goals (Step 2), and how you may approach them (Step 3).

Step 2: Building your communication network

Overlapping with Step 1, you can start building a communications network in your town or region, and/or your umbrella university. This can overlap because it’s very likely that those spheres will be part of your audiences. Who your audiences are will follow from Step 1, but they will include groups like local researchers, researchers (abroad or other universities), potential funders, youths, students, prospective colleagues, current colleagues and local communities.

Building that network will give you access to their knowledge, their media networks or even events that you can plug into. And you can then start to develop your own communications network:

• Increase reach by also utilizing the channels at partner organizations (and also by giving their researchers a stage if they work with you)
• Building relationships with media/journalists that will understand increasingly subtle and nuanced hooks for your stories, so that their stories become better, more interesting and more valuable.
• Developing a sense of your audiences, allowing you to engage them more effectively.
• Inspire your own researchers by exposing them to new questions and ideas.

Step 3: Expanding your communication output

According to the Goal>Audience>Message>Medium model, it’s best to pick a medium (create output) when you know exactly what your message is, and to whom (audience), and why (goal). But since your organization is new and some output will be so basic that you need it anyway, you can start making some output alongside the developments in Step 1 and 2, and develop it as you go. A few examples of those things:

• Branded infographics showing core processes.
• Branded templates for posters and presentations, and training researchers to use them so that their own communication improves as well.
• (Placeholder) website with the first, basic info.
• Social media; you can claim some accounts on the most likely platforms, and start to post and build a community while your ideas and plans for this become more sophisticated.

At a later stage, when Step 1 and 2 are clear, you can start thinking about how to create output for specific audiences. These may be public (scientific) talks, newsletters, press releases, etc. This step also includes decisions on who will be responsible, who is your spokesperson for which topic, etc.

When you’ve come this far, it’s good to start talking to a professional science communication advisor – or hire one; we have plenty of trainings and expertise available to help you. In any case, we hope that this brief guide will have helped you understand the approach for science communication, and get things on track!