PhD Day 2022 - Communicating in science: what is your story?

12.15 – 12.45   Registration
12.45 – 13.45   Opening & Pleanary session Bas Haring
14.00 – 15.00   Workshop session 1
15.00 – 15.30   Break
15.30 – 16.30   Workshop session 2
16.45 – 17.30   Pleanary session Randy Olson
18.00 – 21.00   Dinner Botanical Gardens

12.45 – 13.45   Bas Haring
Bas Haring never tells a standard story and always comes up with something new. He will tell and interact with you about our PhD Day theme 'Communicating Science: what is your story?' based on his recent experiences. His goal is to trigger you to think differently and develop new ideas.

“I rather help people understand existing scientific knowledge, than create new scientific knowledge myself.” BAS HARING is a professor in the Public Understanding of Science at Leiden University and a philosopher with a PhD in Computer Science. He teaches several courses: bioethics; scientific visualization and narration – about alternative ways to explain science; and on being a scientist – about the essence of science and scientific integrity. In 2016, Bas Haring was awarded the “Clear Language Prize” for being the clearest and best understandable Dutch academic. He also wrote several books, both for children and adults. His first work was a children’s book about evolution, called Cheese and the Theory of Evolution. It was published in 2001, and won, among other prizes, the Golden Owl – the most prestigious award for Dutch juvenile literature. All in all, in a fresh and accessible manner, Bas Haring tries to show that science can be understood – and done! – by almost everyone. Over the last years he made appearances in Dutch television programs.

16.45 – 17.30   Randy Olson - The ABT Framework: How to communicate science in an age of too much information.
Do you want to know how much information we have these days? Too much.  It’s a problem that is probably at the core of everything going wrong in the world (people increasingly have trouble listening and focusing like never before). Over the past decade Randy Olsen has been developing the ABT Framework (And, But, Therefore) which gets you to the heart of narrative structure which is at the heart of everything humans do. Pretty much. During the seminar Randy Olsen will give you a little bit of a taste of the ABT, and will work with the three winners of the ABT competition (see below how to participate). You’ll get a little feel for how “solving an ABT” is very much like solving a jigsaw puzzle. It takes time but is very gratifying when you finally get it right.

RANDY OLSON is the 2020 recipient of the John P. McGovern Award for Excellence in Biomedical Communication from the American Medical Writers Association. He is the founder and director of the ABT (And, But, Therefore) Narrative Training program working with scientists and communicators using the ABT Framework developed in his 6 books on communication and first presented in his 2013 TEDMED Talk. He is a scientist-turned-filmmaker who left a tenured professorship of marine biology (PhD Harvard University) to attend USC Cinema School, then worked in and around Hollywood for 25 years. His documentary feature film, Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired for two years on Showtime. His book writing began in 2009 with, Don’t Be Such A Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style (Island Press, 2nd edition, 2018). He presented the ABT Framework in Houston, We Have A Narrative:  Why Science Needs Story (University of Chicago Press, 2015). From these books has arisen his narrative training programs involving several thousand scientists from numerous government agencies (National Park Service, USDA, NIH, USGS, USFWS) and universities as it continues to grow. He is also a producer of the 2019 documentary feature film, White Rhino:  Big Wave Surfing’s Biggest Year which played at 50 film festivals and is available on Amazon Prime.

Workshop 1. Communication at the Workfloor | Hermen Visser | Visser Visible
Do you know there are 4 main communication styles? During this workshop you will learn to recognize these different communication styles and to use them for more effective communication. You will explore your own style and gain insight in why you show certain behaviours related to your own style. This will help you to understand how other people experience contact with you and why they respond to you in certain ways. Next, you will learn to recognize and understand communicationstyles of others. This will help you undestand why some people behave and react very differently than you would in certain situations. Additionally, you can use this information to  adapt your own communication style so you can influence their style more effectively.

Workshop 2. Improving your Online Visibility | Felix Weijdema | Library Utrecht University
Can other scholars find my publications online? How can I use social media to increase the reach of my research? The online visibility of you as a researcher and your scientific output has become increasingly important over the past few years. Your publications and other output have to be visible and findable to reach an audience. But what can you do more to reach out to your target audience? During this workshopyou learn more about how you can improve your online presence and visibility as a researcher.

Workshop 3. Linkedin Advanced | Tirsa de Vries | Career Services Utrecht University
Do you already have a LinkedIn account, do you know the basics, but do you really want to learn how you can use it to find a job? Then follow this LinkedIn Advanced training. You will learn how to make sure recruiters/employers find you, how to write a good summary, how to use groups and company pages, how to find vacancies, and how to build and maintain a good network.

Workshop 4. Pitch your Research for a Layman's Audience | Frans van Dam | Freudenthal Institute Utrecht University
It can be hard to explain your complex research in a clear way in just a few sentences. During this workshop you will learn tips and tricks to communicate to an audience of non-experts. In one-minute exercises, you will test and improve your communication skills. When participating in this session, bring a few lines about your research that together form a short story. One of these lines should be your key or take-away message. Your one-minute story will be the basis for a lively and understandable elevator pitch.

Workshop 5. Popular Science Writing | Ronald Veldhuizen | Science journalist
The expertise you have in your research field is undoubtedly worthwhile to share with others, but sharing it with a wider audience or even colleagues can be a challenge. That's because expertise is often intertwined with all sorts of jargon, detail and nuance. How do you convey your core scientific insights without too much fuss while holding on to key nuances? That is what popular science writing is all about, which is what we'll be doing this masterclass. With a few handy tricks you can avoid the biggest pitfalls in popular science writing, and you can quickly write an accessible story. Bring pen and paper or a laptop to the masterclass. After the masterclass, you'll have a nice toolbox with which you can write about your work in a concrete and easy style.

Workshop 6. Public Engagement | Stephanie Helfferich | Utrecht University Centre of Science and Culture
Let’s say your research group wants to engage a general audience with your research. Where to start? This workshop throws you into the deep end: you are given a budget, a target audience and a few other crucial factors, and in 2x 20 minutes you are challenged to come up with a plan. And not just any plan, because you will be subjected to the rigorous feedback of your colleagues: does the activity fit the research? How will you get your audience to attend? Who is your audience, and why do they care? The group with the best plan wins a surprise!

Workshop 7. Scientists on Stage: Theatre Workshop | Maria Sovago | Stralia
Connect, network, team up! We, the scientists, need to do it every day. Because no matter what our aim is – present, lecture, teach, pitch, sell your results or sell yourself – IT IS YOU ON STAGE! In this workshop, we will use theatre techniques adapted for scientists to bring you to the next level of connection and transform you from a standard scientist to YOU 2.0. You will gain confidence, pleasure and a learn how to have impact when sharing your ideas. You will leave the workshop full of energy, power and thirst to perform!

Workshop 8. Talk like TED | Tara Phillips | TEDx speaker coach
With billions of views globally, TED is a phenomenal success. It’s platform for “Ideas Worth Spreading” has stirred hearts and minds around the world. And now its approach is transforming the way people speak in public. In this interactive workshop, Tara will share the magic ingredients of TED talks, what she has learned being a TEDx speaker coach for 12 years and tips and tricks so your presentations can have some TED impact. After the workshop you will be able to apply 3 TED speaking approaches which will bring more clarity, interest, and inspiration. Prepare a presentation topic as you’ll get a chance to play with these approaches in your own communication.

Workshop 9. Vlogging for Scientists | Siroon Bekkering | Scientist & Science Communicator
Communicating your results to the non-scientific world is becoming more and more important for a scientist. But where do you start and how? In this workshop, we will talk about using video for communicating your science. How can you use video to communicate your science abstract or research question, or to broadcast yourself as a scientist? What tools do you need, how do you start, and how can you edit your video? During this interactive workshop you will use your phone to bring some things in to practice immediately.

In the beautiful scenery of the Botanical Gardens of Utrecht University, you can meet your peers and enjoy food and drinks.

Submit here

For this contest, we’ll need you to submit your own ABT sentence (And, But, Therefore). The ABT narrative template is a tool for organising the narrative structure of any amount of content. It is at the core of storytelling, logic, reason, argument and the scientific method.

Only the first 100 submissions will be included in the contest for a chance to win up to 500 euros worth of prizes for the top 3 contestants. So, hurry and submit your ABT!

Your own sentence ABT should be an active problem that you are working on - work projects work best for this. This will be the ABT that will be shared with the PhD Day final plenary session and used by Dr. Olson as an example if you are selected to be one of the top 3 ABT’s. We’ll notify you at least a day before the PhD Day to confirm you’ll be present for it. We will only use the first draft of the ABT that you submit to us and do not allow rewrites of your ABT later for the PhD Day plenary session.

To get a clear idea of how the ABT Build exercise works, take a look at this blogpost about an ABT Build session at a supercomputing conference. Watch a bit of the video and you’ll get a feel for how it works and what a typical ABT looks like - you can model your own ABT after the ABTs used in the video. Here’s a few suggestions to help you get a clear idea of what a typical ABT looks like:

SET UP – the first part should try to give a basic idea of “the world” in which your narrative takes place and why it’s important. This is the AND material.
PROBLEM – on the word BUT you present the element of contradiction that is at the core of the project.
SOLUTION – following the word THEREFORE you present the actions being taken as a result of what has been presented.
Please make sure it’s only one sentence (it can be lengthy) and for clarity, use the three words: AND, BUT, THEREFORE which you capitalize.

Here’s a few examples of ABT’s presented by participants in the ABT Framework course, just to give you an idea of what an ABT looks like. We use the three colors to code the three parts of an ABT. These are not perfect (actually, none of them ever are), BUT … they give you the general idea, THEREFORE they should help in crafting your ABT. You can learn a lot more about the ABT by reading “The Narrative Gym.”

1) Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore proposes has a cross country ski trail system that is utilized AND in need of several improvements that would improve access and maintenance operations, BUT the majority of improvements require building facilities in wetlands. THEREFORE, the Park is searching for alternative design solutions to diminish the impact to the wetlands while still providing quality cross country ski trail amenities.
2) Heart disease is the deadliest disease worldwide AND depression correlates with poor cardiovascular health outcomes BUT there are no mechanisms linking the two diseases. THEREFORE we want to identify whether decreased neural activity associated with depression impairs cardiovascular function.
3) Wisconsin has many lakes and rivers that support many diverse ecosystems AND a strong tourism economy, BUT the highest quality lakes and watersheds are unidentified in a rigorous manner. THEREFORE the water resource division of WDNR is undertaking an effort to utilize data to identify these resources with the objective of protecting the best of the best.

Please make sure it’s only one sentence (it can be lengthy) and for clarity, use the three words: AND, BUT, THEREFORE.

Also, don’t sweat it too much on writing this first ABT! The whole purpose of the Build Session is to improve on what you’ve got. There will be no destructive criticism – it’s all about using the ABT Framework to strengthen the narrative core of what you want to communicate.

Submit here. The deadline for submissions is May 31^st. Good luck!

An ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is just a unique iD of four times four numbers. How do you convey something so neutral to researchers in a humorous way?

Felix Weijdema, Faculty Liaison of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University Library, is committed to improving the (online) visibility of researchers by means of an ORCID iD. ORCID is a digital identifier for scientists, which links identity with professional information - such as affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more! To put ORCID in the spotlight, Felix Weijdema is organizing an ORCID Lottery during the PhD Day. The winners will go home with a nice prize!

For those interested in participating in the lottery, an ORCID iD can be created by clicking on the following link: https://orcid.org/. ORCID registration during the PhD Day is also possible, but we strongly recommended you to do this in advance.