FameLab Ireland 2021
Year Awarded
2020
Amount
€49,500
- Organisation:British Council Ireland
- Audience:Transition Year Students, Post Primary Teachers - Senior Cycle, Parents, Third Level, General Public
- Format:Informal Education
- Location:national
Project Summary
FameLab is the only international science communication competition designed to discover, train and nurture scientists and engineers to share their enthusiasm for STEM with the public in fun, creative ways. Since 2005, FameLab has cultivated 14500+ communicators from 35+ countries.
In only seven years, FameLab Ireland has grown beyond recognition into a leading national science communication programme, combining a unique blend of capacity building, competition and public engagement. In 2021, we will consolidate this success and in so doing, will continue to inspire confidence, awareness and engagement on science among the Irish public. Working through our 80+ dynamic alumni (45% female) and quality partnership (25+ multi-sector organisations), planned activities include:
-Competition where emerging scientists (age 18+) have 3 minutes to explain a scientific concept to a general audience. Live public heats within arts/community venues in Cork/Galway/Limerick/Dublin, a nationwide video competition and public national/international finals streamed globally
-Science communication taster training for all participants-115+. World class sci-comm masterclass-10 finalists
-Ambitious marketing strategy including future science snapshot films (e.g., future living, women and STEM), alumni blog series, FameLab Ireland YouTube channel (260+ talks) and social/mainstream media campaigns to encourage greater public confidence and interest in STEM-1.8 million+ reach
-More confident, skilled alumni network involved in 18+ FameLab partnered sci-comm activities nationally/internationally (Pint of Science, Psychslam, SCICOM etc)
FameLab will target priority areas/groups/themes and will directly engage 875+ STEM professionals and 35k+ general public audiences. Given Covid-19 context, all 2021 activity will be delivered through tried and tested digital methods if/as needed.