Towards a science and society dialogue on research in progress – DIALOGUER

The University of Strasbourg (Unistra) has long been very involved in the dialogue between science and society, with the existence of a dedicated structure, the Jardin des sciences, whose educational and cultural activities are spread throughout Alsace. A planetarium (inaugurated in 1982), museum structures within a historical heritage listed UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017, and a House for science in Alsace created in 2012 allow the construction of tools for cultural mediation of science for various audiences. In addition, these tools are developed in close dialogue with the research actors distributed within 71 research units of the Unistra and the associated national research partners organisations (CNRS, INSERM), in very varied disciplinary fields. Our actions are also based on the construction of rich and varied partnerships with local authorities, the rectorate, regional CSTI actors, and more generally cultural actors, in order to pool complementary expertise and knowledge as well as human and/or financial resources.
The high success rate of Unistra researchers in ANR calls for projects has enabled us to have 21 eligible projects and to make a collaborative proposal with 17 project leaders.
The various mediation actions proposed in the framework of this call will also be developed in consultation with colleagues from CNRS and INSERM regional delegations and as a complement to the actions they are respectively carrying out in their response to this ANR call. A steering committee will be made up of the directors of the Jardin des sciences and the communications departments of the CNRS and INSERM regional delegations.
These mediation activities are divided into four main formats aimed at school (middle school and high school), students, adults, seniors and family audiences: pupils/researchers’ meetings in middle and high schools’ classes but also at the university; conferences and workshops for young adults, adults, seniors and families; digital mediation tools for researchers, students, high school students, young adults and adults; training in scientific mediation and media training for research actors. If these actions are part of a pre-existing implementation framework, the emphasis will be place, thanks to this call and the strengthened partnership with the 17 research laboratories involved, on the development of new tools to target young adults aged 15-30. These include student-researcher meetings with round-tables on cross-cutting themes such as the place of women in science, research ethics, sustainable development or health-environment issues; short and directing conferences or friendly formats such as scientific aperitifs or conference walks in more unusual places (observatory, botanical greenhouse, anatomy amphitheater, etc.) but also outside the university (bars, concert halls, public places) in order to attract this young public to offbeat offers that emphasise relaxed human encounters; video capsules with some lecturers adapted to YouTube format of 15/20 minutes; the setting up of a Twitch channel, a live or on-demand video streaming channel.
This project provides a unique opportunity to, on the one hand, strengthen our capacity to build scientific mediation tools for various audiences on ongoing multidisciplinary research, and on the other hand, standardize the co-construction of scientific communication and mediation tools between ANR project leaders, Jardin des sciences, communication services of INSERM and CNRS regional delegations, and local CSTI actors.