Reimagining the Future - One Health, COVID and Us (REFOHCUS)
Year Awarded
2020
Amount
€42,028
- Organisation:University College Dublin (UCD)
- Audience:Transition Year Students, Parents, General Public
- Format:Informal Education
- Location:Dublin
- Topic:Science
Project Summary
REFOHCUS will use co-created workshops with disadvantaged communities and invited experts that will involve deliberation, debate and proposals around key scientific questions arising from the experience of community members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Groups will have opportunities to hear expert views and then discuss such fundamental questions as:
Where did this coronavirus come from?
What can we do to prevent future pandemics?
What links human health, animal health, environmental health and food systems?
How can scientists, engineers, mathematicians and health care professionals work together to protect planetary health?
Participants will be invited from two communities that already have links with UCD Access and Lifelong Learning, based in Ballyogan and Ballyfermot, Dublin. Feedback has indicated their willingness to engage on STEM topics. The groups will play an important role in setting the agenda – outlining what is important to them in their lives and how they consider STEM can have an impact on these questions.
REFOHCUS will empower participants to debate with confidence questions on science, health and society, and related policy. At project initiation, a structured communication, (Delphi-like ) process will be used to select the themes and questions of most importance to the participants. During the implementation phase, there will be a focus on differing viewpoints, their scientific basis, and the evolution of knowledge through the scientific process. A capstone event will be a high-profile Public Lecture with the participants as special guests. The project will be evaluated by measurements of Science Capital before and after the project.