In universities, who is actually doing science communication?

If a recently published study from Marta Entradas (ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa) and colleagues is anything to go by, it's not central university communication offices.

That might seem a bit surprising. After all, aren't research universities all about research, and aren't central university communications all about...well... communications?

Well, yes, but as this study, which focuses on research universities in Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the UK, highlights, central university communications are more about PR and marketing than science communication. Here's a quick glimpse into what the researchers found.

💶Half of the universities allocate less than 1% of their overall budget to the central communications offices (excluding salaries). Anyone who works in marketing/PR in the private sector will tell you that's pretty low.

👩‍💻 Central communications offices employ an average of eight people. Less than three of these people dedicate any time to science communications. Most of the activities revolve around PR and marketing. Their focus is on recruiting students, raising their profile, especially through the media, and "responding to the university mission." Science communication activities, such as contributing to "the legitimacy of science," stimulating public debate, and giving back to the tax payer, ranked pretty low on their priorities.

🔈76% have a "public communications strategy" (vague, right), and 82% have a ‘policy encouraging public communication of research.' (who are they encouraging to do this work?).

📰 The favourite communication channels are press releases, media interviews, institutional websites, and social media. Citizen science activities, science cafes, events with private institutions and industry, and interactions with policymakers aren't so common.

Curious to know more?

Read the open access research 👇

Entradas, M., Marcinkowski, F., Bauer, M. W., & Pellegrini, G. (2023). University central offices are moving away from doing towards facilitating science communication: A European cross-comparison. Plos one, 18(10), e0290504. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290504