These is the slide deck of presentations used during the webinar "Building a bridge between scientists and communicators" This webinar was organised by GFAR It was introduced in this blogpost: https://blog.gfar.net/2017/01/03/webinar-scientists-and-communicators-friends-or-foes/ The video recording of the actual webinar can be found on our Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/HK8Q0JgAaGQ

1. Webinar
“Building a bridge
between Communicators
and Scientists”
Organized by GFAR

2. Webinar structure:
• Marjana Westergren: scientists view
• Marianne Gadeberg: building the relationship with
scientists
• Q&A
• Boris Rantasa: motivation and shifting attitude
• Valérie Poiré: strategic comms planning with
scientists
• Peter Casier: building empathy
• Q&A

3. The Scientists’ View
Marjana Westergren
Slovenian Forestry Institute

4. Building the Relationship with Scientists
Marianne Gadeberg
Freelance Communications Consultant
WLE, CGIAR

5. subversive
səbˈvəːsɪv/
adjective
1. seeking or intended to subvert an
established system or institution

6. Be careful
@streetartarchive

7. Be flexible
@streetartarchive

8. Be transparent
@streetartarchive

9. Question/Remarks

10. MOTIVATION AND SHIFTING
ATTITUDE TOWARDS
COMMUNICATING
Boris Rantaša, Slovenian Forestry Institute

11. WHERE TO BEGIN?
How to start from nothing?

12. Starting out as a comms manager
• Get familliar with project plan, goals and
deliverables – what is my job?
• Place focus on goals, and everything else will
fall in place
• Example: Apparances on national TV
• Take in account your own specifics/specifics of
your project team
• Begin work!

13. Begin preparations
• Are we up to the challenge?
• If not, research, get educated, get help
• Create a story and develop it with your team
(simplify, but don‘t lie)
• Test your story out (see if its publish-worthy)

15. CREATING BEST
PRACTICES
Positive examples will „start the
machine“

16. Ingredients
• Publication-worthy story
• Team members with positive attitude (Face or
faces for your story)
• Educate, prepare and support your team
members
• Promote your story (create opportunities)
• Take advantage of opportunities
• Always be prepared to fill in

22. MOMENTUM
When the „machine“ will run, good
results will come

23. National TV appearance
• Refined and tested story
• Good public speaker (personality)
• Pitching (with greater ambitions than before)
• Success from before motivates other scientists to
appear
• If possible, show scientists in their „natural“
environment – forest, laboratory – less stress,
more room for error
• If possible, use your best speaker for the studio

27. 9 PRINCIPLES
9 principles for being a successful
communications/ dissemination
manager

28. 9 principles
• Create a strategy and focus on your goals. Always have
your general course and final goal in mind. Don’t stray too far
from them and constantly re-evaluate your efforts to get closer.
• Foster great relationships. Relationships are in my opinion
the real currency in this business. Without sympathetic, like-
minded co-workers, partners and journalists it is very hard to
“penetrate” the media landscape and impossible to finish great
projects. Understanding and empathy go a long way in nervous
moments. It’s always good to have friends.
• Build interesting stories. Interesting/relevant stories will
attract co-workers, friends, followers, and the media to your
project/research. They will also get your content published
faster than funds and connections.

29. 9 principles
• Stay active and always be on the lookout for new
opportunities. You might be somewhere with a clear set
of aims/goals, but be ready to change/complement them if
a new opportunity arises. You never know when your next
big “score” might hit you in the face.
• Take advantage of your opportunities. Great
opportunities usually only come once. Try to recognise
them and don’t be afraid to “roll the dice” when your think
one’s there.
• You’ll get nervous. And that’s normal. Project
management and public speaking are very stressful. It
gets easier with experience, but it’s never easy. However,
it’s very important to learn how to effectively manage
stress. Most of us have to learn that lesson the hard way.

30. 9 principles
• Preparation is key. Prepare, train and rehearse to make
sure you do the best job possible. After a public
appearance, you don’t want that voice in your head telling
you that you could have prepared better.
• Be flexible and always try to stay positive. Sometimes
things might not go your way. That only means you need
to re-adjust your course. Each failure is a learning
experience, what doesn’t kill you makes your stronger,
etc. etc.
• Always be ready to learn. Last but not least. Set aside a
few hours per week to take courses, explore new tools
and read up on the current trends. These hours are rarely
wasted.

31. Thank you. Keep in touch!
boris.rantasa@gozdis.si
https://rantasa.me/
https://www.facebook.com/boris.rantasa
https://twitter.com/borisrantasa
https://si.linkedin.com/in/borisrantasa

32. Strategic Communication Planning
Helping scientists manage change for better
impact
Valérie Poiré, Editorial and Multimedia Services Manager, CIFOR

33. Why scientists and communication?
• This is about strategic planning from the get-go.
• To facilitate the adoption of their research results by
users.
• For increased impact by preparing and packaging
research results to overcome user resistance e.g. lack of
awareness, motivation or know-how.
• To support their theory of change: using communication to
foster changes in knowledge, attitudes and practice.
• To embed communication in their research agendas, get
user feedback, and generate buy in.

34. Program/project success goes further than
delivery of research results…
To achieve impact (development outcomes)
scientists need to ensure uptake of research results
by users:
• NGOs
• Extension agents
• Development
organizations
• Farmers associations
• Farmers
• Policy/decision makers
• Governments
• Research institutions
• Value chain actors
• Private sector
• Etc…
For better impact

35. Program/project success goes further than
delivery of research results…
The work of CGIAR scientists is evaluated by
measuring how results contribute to
development outcomes this way:
Research result X used by research
organization Y and development
organization Z.
This means that research results are
considered successful if they are adopted and
used by others.
For better impact

36. Communication can facilitate sustainable adoption
and uptake of research results by:
Communication for adoption
• Raising awareness &
increasing knowledge
Knowledge: Are users aware
of and do they understand
what the result is?
• Explaining needs for, and
benefits of adopting new
ideas/policies/technologies
Attitude: do they see how
they will benefit from it? How
does it meet theirs needs?
• Demonstrating and
teaching proper use of
recommended tools/
technologies/solutions
Practice: do they know how to
change to adopt the result?
What do they need to do
differently?

37. Planning with scientists to:
1. Identify key research results
2. Link results to expected development outcomes ->
SDGs/Grand challenges
3. Identify key users (target audiences), envision how
they should use the research result
4. Imagine why they would resist to use it, i.e. what
would prevent them from adopting it
5. Identify users’ current and desired levels of
Knowledge, Attitude and Practice
Communication planning process

38. 6. Use strategic communication to address gaps
7. Develop communication plan – objectives, strategies,
channels and tactics – to facilitate adoption of research
results, and enable two-way flow of communication
8. Develop action plan: lead, timeline and budget
Communication planning process

39. Communication planning template

40. Communication planning template

41. Considering how we envision them using the research result
and the resistance we may encounter, what changes are
necessary in terms of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice to
enable adoption of result.
Communication planning template

42. Communication planning template

43. Communication planning template

44. Communication planning template

45. 1. Scientists possess enhanced capacity to plan and use
strategic communication to facilitate change management
and overcome constraints to adoption
2. Communication activities are “co-owned” by scientists and
communicators, planned and budgeted from the get-go, and
prepared before research results are ready for dissemination
3. Users are involved in the research process, which gives them
opportunities to provide feedback and generates buy in
4. Results are communicated in a more strategic and targeted
way that leads to increased adoption by users
5. How results contribute to development outcomes, grand
challenges and SDGs is clear and easy to communicate
Conclusion

46. cifor.org
blog.cifor.org
ForestsTreesAgroforestry.org
“I had never thought about the resistance factors
hindering adoption; it changes the way I see
research interventions and will modify how I interact
with Innovation Platforms stakeholders.”
Dr. Oluwole Fatunbi, Acting Divisional Manager for Visioning
and Knowledge Management, FARA
“I had planned to attend only the first hour of the
workshop but I participated until the end. All of our
scientists should be taught how to plan and use
communication in this way.”
Dr. Jean-Claude Bidogeza, Agricultural Economist, AVRDC

47. Building Empathy
Peter Casier
GFAR Community Coordinator

48. Empathy
“the ability to understand
and share the feelings of another.”

49. Workshop: Scientists in the shoes of
communicators

50. Citations in ISI journals of peer-reviewed articles
written by the center’s scientists had
the biggest jump ever in 2011
ISI Citations Total number of publications downloaded
Life of a researcher: citations &
downloads

51. The power of a blog
340
440
540
640
740
840
07-Jun 27-Jun 17-Jul 06-Aug 26-Aug 15-Sep
Before the blog:
3 per day
Since then:
7 per day
During 3 days
after the blog:
35 per day
Downloads
“Publishing is good. Being read is better.” (Bruno Locatelli)
A paper published in the journal Forests (18 Mar 11)
A blog article about this paper on the center’s website (16 Aug 11)

52. Blog readers’ survey
Government
representative
6.4%
Donor
1.6%
Intergovernmental
(IGO)
representative
3.1%
Non-governmental
(NGO)
representative
17.2%
Scientist
/Academic
20.4%Private
sector
worker
11.0%
Journalist
4.0%
Student
27.6%
Other
8.7%
Who are they?
(2,690 survey respondents)
55% of readers download
science articles after reading
blog stories
1/3 said blog stories made
them think differently about
topic

53. Give them feedback
1. # blogpost views and comments
2. Click conversion: # downloads/click through’s
3. #Facebook/Twitter views and shares
4. Have a friendly competition

54. Question/Remarks