August 2017

#32

Rainbow science

FEATURES

IN DEPTH

Rush hour by Leonardo Alfonsi

LOOKOUT

Rainbow science
COLUMN

An ever greater societal responsibility by Herbert Münder

From the Ecsite office
Ecsite Conference
EU news
From Ecsite European collaborations
Good reads and resources
Opportunities
New exhibitions
From Ecsite members
From readers

Spokes is edited by Ecsite, the European network of science centres and museums.
Sign up to receive the magazine each month for free.

Rush hour

In depth

Roving reflections on the future of science events

Rush hour

Leonardo Alfonsi

Rainbow science

Lookout

Towards active LGBTQ+ representation and inclusion in our science centres and museums

Rainbow science

Sarah Durcan

Sacha Coward

Shaun O’Boyle

Laura Phillips

Scott McKenzie-Cook

Andrea Bandelli

An ever greater societal responsibility

Column

The new Ecsite President on his vision for Ecsite and the European science communication field

An ever greater societal responsibility

Herbert Münder

From the Ecsite office

Your five minutes of EU advocacy

Answer a public consultation on social inclusion and informal learning - Ecsite produced a rationale to help you.

Do you 5 minutes of EU advocacy for informal learning with Ecsite

Directors Forum: registration time!

Registration closes on 15 September for the event that will be taking place in Paris on 4-6 October. A call for contributions is also open till 25 August.

Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, Paris, France ® N Breton - EPPDCSI

Internship opportunity

Ecsite is seeking an intern who is fluent in English and has excellent organisational and communication skills to join our Project Management team. Apply by 24 August

Ecsite Interns at annual conference 2017

Ecsite Conference

Call for session proposals opening soon!

Stay tuned: the call for session proposals for the #Ecsite2018 edition will be opened between 16 August and 16 October.

Session at the 2017 Ecsite Annual Conference in Porto, Portugal

Missed the #Ecsite2017 keynote speeches?

Watch them online, as well as the opening ceremony.

Nina Simon keynote speech at the 2017 Ecsite Annual Conference, Porto, Portugal. 17 June

#Ecsite2018 video now online

Look forward to brilliant and provocative sessions, brand new connections, interesting social events and, of course, an immersive cultural experience that only an international city such as Geneva can offer. Watch the video here

#Ecsite2018 conference theme “Creative collisions” is a stimulating concept that can help us reinvent communication, teaching, learning, and thinking!

Space Group activities at #Ecsite2017

Couldn’t join the Space Group in Porto during the 2017 Ecsite Annual Conference? Download the reports on the two intense days of exchanges and collaborative work aimed at furthering communication about space.

Exchanges during the Space Group Pre-conference Workshop at #Ecsite2017

EU news

LIFE launches call for action grants

Managed by the European Commission, the LIFE programme is supporting projects that protect the environment and tackle the impact of climate change. Deadlines on 7 and 14 September

LIFE programme

Horizon 2020: focus shift

The priorities for the last years of the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme are security, the circular and low-carbon economy, boosting international collaboration and getting the European Innovation Council up and running. Read more on Science|Business

EU to invest €1B to encourage foreign participation

The Commission is putting in the money to attract more international researchers after a substantial fall in the demand for H2020 grants from countries outside the EU. Read the piece on Science|Business

From Ecsite European collaborations

Call for Third Parties

You need to be a member to view this content

To Ecsite members: join the SwafS-11-2017: Science Education Outside the Classroom proposal. Apply by 15 August

Call for TP

Global celebration of Space

On 4 to 10 October, EU Space Awareness invites you to join the World Space Week – the largest public space event on Earth

Sparks fly during tour 5

The Sparks Project is now in Belgium, Hungary, Latvia and Malta and invites you to take advantage of all the participatory activities on offer this summer.

Ïmage: "Beyond the Lab" exhibition opening at Technopolis, Belgium

Dialogue sessions on nanotechnologies at two more Ecsite members

Check out preliminary Nano2all results from MUSE, Italy and ICN2, Spain.

The Nano2All citizen dialogues were hosted by 6 Ecsite members

Gender inclusiveness at your Researchers' Night event

On 29 September visitors to partners in the Hypatia project will experience activities on gender-inclusive ways of communicating STEM.

European Researchers' Night 2017

Longevity-themed weekend

Workshops on the relationship between ageing, the brain & the immune system brought ERC-funded research closer to the polish public.

Good reads and resources

Selected science engagement reads

This month's selection of science engagement papers, features, reports, and news. Includes the 1st issue of CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation, the latest JCOM issue, a guide by UNESCO to support countries in embedding inclusion and equity in educational policy, and more.

Summer reading tips

Your summer list of books, recommended by #Ecsite2017 conference participants at the Bookbistro session

Tweet by Yuri Matteman during the Bookbistro session at #Ecsite2017

Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor

First edition of a new yearly publication by the European Commission

The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor 2017 - Cover

Opportunities

Selection of international conferences and courses

Upcoming international conferences, calls for papers and courses in science engagement.

Registrations open: NEMO’s 25th Annual conference

How do museums make their heart beat, how is it connected to other organs in the museum-body, to communities and to society? Registrations for “Open Heart Surgery – The Value of Museum Collections” are open until 6 November. More

NEMO 25th Annual Conference: registrations open

Call for proposals: modules for MA in art & science

A call launched by the European Commission, deadline 10 October.

Job: Science engagement Director

At the Centre for Life, Newcastle.

Upcoming opportunities at CERN

In the Education, Communications and Outreach group. Add your details to the database of candidates now.

Postdoc: Climate Change Communication Research

At George Mason University in Fairfax, United States. Apply by 7 August

New exhibitions

A EUROPEAN SELECTION OF SCIENCE-RELATED EXHIBITIONS

Each quarter, Editorial Committee member R. Chanay curates a selection of new exhibitions, temporary and permanent. Ecsite members, want to be in the next one? Get in touch

Move and Play!

At Museon in The Hague. This exhibition challenges visitors to compete and cooperate, to play and have fun together.

Museon Move & Play

Terra Data – Our Lives in the Digital Era

At the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, in France. Visitors can explore the world of data and how algorithms help us turning it into knowledge.

Terra Data at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie ©Arnaud Robin

Hintze Hall

At the Natural History Museum in London. A female blue whale Hope is the new star of the reimagined Hintze Hall of the museum.

A Museum of Modern Nature

At the Wellcome collection, London. A crowdsourced exhibition that tells stories of our relationship to the natural world.

Credit: Garden gnome - Julie Carr, image courtesy of Wellcome Collection

From Ecsite members

Blue whale is new NHM London icon

The spectacular skeleton replaces Dippy the Diplodocus as the start of the biggest transformation in the Museum's 136-year history.

Blue whale in Hintze Hall © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London [2017]. All rights reserved.

Austrian #Ecsite2016 hosts win conference award

FRida & freD, Universalmuseum Joanneum and Science Center Netzwerk won the Congress Award from the City of Graz in the category "innovative and very special conference".

2016 Ecsite Annual Conference hosts receiving conference award

Melania Trump and Poland’s First Lady at Copercinus

The visit took place on 6 July on the occasion of President Donald Trump's official visit to Poland.

Melania Trump at the Copernicus Science Centre with Director Robert Firmhofer, 6 July 2017. Credit A. Steifer

Città and Cité working together on fire exhibition

Cité des Sciences (Paris) and Città della Scienza (Naples), both victims of a fire in recent years, are turning this common fate into a collaborative exhibition.

Fire. Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash

From readers

Time to rethink this section?

In this issue, we are testing a new approach, adding an explicit call for readers' reactions with each In Depth and Lookout. Let's test!

Ecsite thanks the writers who have generously contributed to this issue of Spokes. Have an idea for Spokes? Check out the contributors' guide and get in touch.

Spokes is the monthly digital magazine of Ecsite, the European network of science centres and museums. It is put together by the Spokes Editorial Committee:

Maarten Okkersen, Head of Communication and Marketing, Museon, The Hague, Netherlands – Chairperson
Julie Becker, Communications and Events Manager, Ecsite, Brussels, Belgium – Editor
Andrea Bandelli , Executive Director, Science Gallery International, Dublin, Ireland
Raphaël Chanay, Exhibitions and Interpretation Manager, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Marie Couëdic, Communications and Events Intern, Ecsite, Brussels, Belgium
Raquel da Cunha, Events and Communications Officer, Ecsite, Brussels, Belgium
Wiktor Gajewski, Science and Art Events Director, Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw, Poland
Aliki Giannakopoulou, Project Manager, Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Pallini, Greece
Antonio Gomes da Costa, Independent Consultant - Science Communication and Education, Lisbon, Portugal
Gema Revuelta, Associate Professor, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Maria Xanthoudaki, Head of Education and International Relations, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Milan, Italy

Responsible editor: Catherine Franche, Executive Director for Association européenne des expositions scientifiques, techniques et industrielles, aisbl

Frequency: monthly since April 2015 - issue 32, July - August 2017