What is science communication?

The term "science communication" encompasses all communication in science. A distinction is made between internal science communication (within the scientific community) and external science communication (aimed at target groups outside the scientific community). However, the term "science communication" is often understood to mean purely the communication of scientific content to external target groups, i.e. people outside the scientific community. These external target groups are also the focus of the activities we present here.

On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), the OeAD (Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation) coordinates and promotes projects, initiatives and networking opportunities between scientific institutions, schools and society. The aim is to strengthen trust in science and democracy.

Science communication includes initiatives and events such as the Long Night of Research or FäKT (science videos for schools and social media), which aim to make science and research accessible, tangible and understandable to the public. Other activities, such as those carried out by science ambassadors in schools, play an important role in science communication. Researchers visit schools throughout Austria and report on their research and professional fields. Through interactive workshops, reports and personal answers to questions, they provide insight into their everyday work and make themselves ‘approachable’ as researchers. In this way, they introduce pupils to new professional fields and show them how everyday phenomena are reflected in research and can be discussed scientifically (OeAD, 2025).

 

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