The course aims at giving the students the general skills required to communicate scientific concepts and data.

Objectives of the course are:

At the end of the course the learner will be able to:
- Organize and present scientific data based on the principles of science communication;
- describe how to effectively present different types of data (narrative, table, plot, graphical representation, etc.);

Writing Skills

At the end of the course, the learners will be able to describe

● how to prepare a scientific publication, in particular:
○ how to select a scientific journal based on the subject area, target audience, impact factor, article type, etc.
○ the concept of “scientific journal format”
○ how to structure a scientific article
○ how to write references correctly
○ the features of scientific language
○ best practices of paper writing
● how to structure a grant proposal, in particular:
○ how to identify a suitable call for a given research
○ the main elements of a grant proposal: work packages (WPs), milestones, deliverables, budget, etc.
○ how to structure a grant proposal
○ the different roles of participants (PI, WP leads, partners)

● the characteristics of a scientific report, in particular:
○ how to identify the purpose of a report
○ how to structure a scientific report

Presentation Skills:

At the end of the course, the learner will be able to explain

● how to identify the most appropriate communication style given a target audience (students, experts, examining committee, etc) and a context (formal, non formal, teaching, training, thesis defence, etc.)
● why the body language is important
● what are the “key rules” when communicating science from a stage
● how to move on a stage
● how to use their body and voice
● how to effectively use visual, movable, and portable supports (white board, slides, props, etc.)
● the features of effective slides

Learners will also be able to create
● effective slides, keeping into account what cognitive sciences teach us: cognitive extraneous overload and attention split, and dual coding (how to combine words and visuals).

Graphic Skills

knowledge and understanding:

Students will be able to:
● Describe and explain the concept of image resolution
● Distinguish among the different colour spaces
● Tell the difference between raster and vector image formats
● Recognise the different image file formats
● Explain the concept of image compression
● Utilise the main tools (from the main palette) of Open Source software such as GIMP, Inkscape, for raster and vector image modification.
● Organise the layout of a complex image based on the rules of graphic design composition.

Application, analysis and synthesis:

Students will be able to:

● Design and create a multi-panel image from scratch. This includes the ability to: modify source images; include legends and diagrams; export data and plots as image files; organize the layout and assemble the figure
● Prepare scientific figures and illustration in agreement with editorial artwork-guidelines
● Design and export images in the correct format, with image properties optimized for a specific communication media (e.g. scientific paper, research project, oral presentations, poster)