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The Science Communication Observatory (OCC) participated in the PLACES Second Annual Conference placed on Tartu (Estonia) during the days 10, 11 and 12 of October. Gema Revuelta and Sergio Ferrer shared with the audience some of the preliminary information from the work group headed by the OCC which main goal is to measure the assessment of science communication initiatives and policies.
The first part of the work has consisted in develop a common toolkit, in which is described the methodology used and also the instruments to employ in each case (study is focused on three agents: museums or science centers, events or science festivals and scientific cities or cities of scientific culture). In the second part of this work, each of the 28 participant researchers are carrying out at least one case study in their countries following the methodology of the toolkit. 30 cases are being analysed (in almost all Europe). Definitive results will be avaible in early 2013.
Toolkit is not only addressed to the university researchers involved in this group but has been elaborated to be widely used by future researchers, whether or not they came from academic field. In fact, in Tartu conference, Gema Revuelta encouraged the science communicators to download the tool and use it completely or partially. Toolkit has a Creative Commons license that allows copying and using the document freely, every time that source is mentioned.
During these three days, participants could also listen interesting conferences and participate in debates and workshops beside the rest of the PLACES consortium members. Among the issues of greatest concern, the development of City Partnerships continued, as well as the established consortiums between local organisms of different cities of PLACES. Also different models of Local Action Plans were presented, which are action plans designed by the city partnerships for guarantee their scientific culture policies.
Additional information:
![](https://ccs.upf.edu/wp-content/uploads/logo-FECYT2021-1-scaled.jpg" "logo FECYT2021"){kind=logo}
Este blog cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología – Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación