D10.4: Interim report on communication and dissemination activities

nextGEMS Next Generation Earth Modelling Systems Deliverable title Interim report on communication and dissemination activities Deliverable number D55 (Del. Rel. No. D10.4) Revision 1 Status Final Planned delivery date 31/08/2023 Actual date of issue 30/08/2023 Nature of deliverable Report Lead partner BSC Dissemination level Public The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programmes under grant agreement No 101003470 nextGEMS About this document Report on the conducted communication and dissemination activities with an update of the communication and dissemination plan. Work package in charge: WP10 Lead author: Dragana Bojović Other contributing authors: Eulàlia Baulenas Internal reviewer(s): 1st reviewer: Heike Konow 2nd reviewer: Elina Plesca Contacts: [email protected] Visit us on: www.nextgems-h2020.eu Disclaimer: This material reflects only the authors view and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 2 nextGEMS Contents 1 Executive summary 4 2 Conclusion & Results 4 3 Project objectives 4 4 Detailed report on the deliverable 8 4.1 nextGEMSaudience.................................. 8 4.2 Key communication activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.2.1 ScienceExplainers............................... 9 4.2.2 Storylines.................................... 10 4.2.3 Next generation Video Communication Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.2.4 Other Communication Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 5 References (Bibliography) 15 6 Dissemination and uptake 15 6.1 Uptake by the targeted audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 6.2 Ensuring the uptake of the deliverables by the targeted audience . . . . . . . . . 15 7 Deliverable timeliness 16 8 Changes made and/or difficulties encountered, if any 16 9 Sustainability 17 9.1 Links built with other deliverables, WPs, and synergies created with other projects 17 10 Full track of dissemination activities 17 11 Full track of publications and IP 17 D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 3 nextGEMS 1 Executive summary This deliverable updates the nextGEMS project communication and dissemination plan and details activities that have been done in the first half of the project. The main objective of the communication and dissemination activities is to provide regular project communication and dissemination targeting various audiences, from the scientific community to many societal actor groups, as the first step towards a more profound engagement with stakeholders and future users of project results. Besides using standard science communication approaches, such as peer-reviewed articles, participation at conferences, social media and the project website, nextGEMS also explores and applies innovative communication and dissemination approaches and tools. These include Vlogs (the video communication), science explainers and storylines. The communication and dissemination activities are part of WP10 and the Storms & Society theme, and the main two partners responsible for its implementation are Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Latest Thinking (LT). However, the activities are deployed in close collaboration with all consortium members and project participants. 2 Conclusion & Results The project communication and dissemination activities follow the principles of visibility, transparency, plurality and usability. This includes ensuring visibility of the project and its outcomes for a wide range of stakeholder circles; being transparent on the evolution of the nextGEMS scientific production; plurality in the perspectives included and reached with the different communication and dissemination products; and usability by tailoring the scientific outputs with and for different stakeholder groups and using communication approaches for starting knowledge coproduction. Particularly interesting are nextGEMS’s three innovative communication and engagement approaches: videos, science explainers and storylines. Developing four different types of videos, nextGEMS tailors them to all six stakeholder groups targeted by the project. So far, the project has produced 17 videos. Already becoming a leitmotif and recognisable mark of nextGEMS, these short, visually appealing, videos prepared in an accessible language are considered extremely powerful communication tools, that can be easily disseminated through social media, showcased at events or distributed in other ways. The next innovative communication tool is science explainers which show the driving ideas and progress from nextGEMS scientists in plain language and different formats. Finally, an important approach for disseminating project outcomes will be through storylines. The co-exploration and co-design activities have already started for the two project storylines, as detailed in D10.3. 3 Project objectives The following table lists the overall objectives of nextGEMS. Objectives that the current report contributes to are flagged with yes. D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 4 nextGEMS Specific objectives of the project Contribution of this deliverable? O1 To develop two SR-ESMs for applications (i) by demonstrating their capacity to more realistically represent the coupled (land-ocean-atmosphere) climate system, also through an ability to better leverage observations; no (ii) by performing the first global multi-decadal (30 y) SR-ESM based climate projections, testing for outof-sample climate trajectories, i.e., surprises, and thereby giving a new perspective on uncertainty; and no (iii) by expanding their scope to begin more physically coupling ‘Earth-system’ processes, including the carbon cycle and the atmospheric aerosol no O2 To use SR-ESMs to test emerging and long-standing hypotheses underpinning our understanding of climate change: (i) that convective organization contributes importantly to Earth’s energy budget and the strength of cloud feedbacks; no (ii) that a more explicit representation of cloud-aerosol interactions mutes aerosol-radiative forcing; no (iii) that 2 km to 200 km scale atmospheric and oceanic circulations are of leading order importance for airsea fluxes in the tropics, thereby influencing not only the mean tropical and mid-latitude climate, but also its variability, including extremes; no (iv) that storm-scale variability in weather systems and of the land surface strongly influence extra-tropical climate and extremes, for instance by conditioning circulation regimes, like blocking; no (v) that capturing landscape variability globally greatly improves the realism with which regional climate can be simulated; and no D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 5 nextGEMS Specific objectives of the project Contribution of this deliverable? (vi) that storm-scale variability through its impact on hydrological extremes affects the carbon budget, with associated implications for the global carbon (emissions) stock-take. no O3 To build new, more integrated, communities of ESM users by: (i) exploiting the necessity of developing SR-ESMs around a centralized infrastructure to create development and analysis paradigms that can more directly involve a broader and more distributed scientific community; and yes (ii) by exploiting the affinity between what people experience and what SR-ESMs simulate (i.e., events, in addition to statistics) to more directly involve nonscientific users in model development, thereby fostering Knowledge Coproduction. yes This deliverable directly contributes to the achievement of specific objectives indicated in the description of the Work Package: Objectives of WP10 Relevance in this deliverable? Implement, monitor and adjust an effective strategy for NextGEMS coproduction, communication & dissemination and video presence (O3) yes Connect model development and application communities and integrate potential users into the coproduction activities (coproduction process) (O3) yes Develop novel communication and dissemination forms to maximize the visibility and usability of the project and its results to target audiences (communication and dissemination) (O3) yes D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 6 nextGEMS Objectives of WP10 Relevance in this deliverable? Provide technical and policy briefings to the competent authorities to make them aware of project results (policy dissemination) (O3) yes D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 7 nextGEMS 4 Detailed report on the deliverable WP10 provided a communication and dissemination plan (D10.2) at the beginning of the project. The principles that guide the plan are those of visibility, transparency, plurality and usability (Norström et al., 2020). Plurality is being respected by adopting a genderand diversity-aware approach when engaging with stakeholders, and when designing communication approaches and disseminating information. Along the line the best practices highlighted in the EU project communication guidelines, nextGEMS allocated enough resources to communication and dissemination activities, as key elements of WP10 and the Storms & Society theme. WP10 additionally includes all consortium members, whose collaboration in project communication and dissemination is guided by the project team with expertise on user engagement and communication. This report details the communication and dissemination activities that took place in the first half of the project. 4.1 nextGEMS audience nextGEMS defines near-field and far-field stakeholder groups and adjusts different communication and dissemination strategies to each of these groups. 1.The near-field nextGEMS stakeholder groups are formed by the following: • Scientists: earth science community and wider scientific community; • Users: users from renewable energy and fisheries; • Technologists: HPC technologists and high-capacity data experts; 2. The far-field nextGEMS stakeholder groups are formed by the following: • Policy-makers: policy and decision makers; • Broader user community: users from other sectors and domains, including climate services and met offices; • Public and media: general public, including communities from West Africa, and journalists. Figure 1 shows the communication and dissemination products that each of the stakeholder groups will receive during the project. NextGEMS communication strategy builds on two ideas: tailoring communication and dissemination material to each stakeholder group and putting the emphasis on what is communicated as well as on the process of creating the message. These two ideas, the communication content and process, work together synergistically, allowing us to reach more effectively the audience and increase the awareness about the results of the project, but also a robust legacy with the uptake of its outputs by different communities. This is also aligned with the coproduction paradigm we embraced in nextGEMS (see D10.1 and D10.3). D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 8 nextGEMS Figure 1: NextGEMS stakeholder groups and means and mediums of communication 4.2 Key communication activities nextGEMS applies standard communication approaches by using the project website, social media, research articles and word of mouth at various conferences and events. In addition, it applies three innovative communication formats: Vlog, science explainers, and storylines. These different product types can more effectively reach different audiences. 4.2.1 Science Explainers Science explainers present the driving ideas and progress from nextGEMS scientists in plain language. Science Explainers are concise, accessible content designed to make complex scientific concepts understandable to diverse audiences. By implementing a multi-faceted strategy with written formats, video storytelling, and visual design, these explainers serve to enhance transparency, foster public understanding, and may eventually support evidence-based decision-making. The explainers aim to show how scientists think and their way of working and cover a wide range of topics relevant to any audience interested in the latest breakthroughs related to SR-ESMs. This approach gives access to information and explanations that are often not otherwise available to the public. The development of Science Explainers for the nextGEMS project follows a systematic and co-creative approach designed to ensure clarity, accessibility, and scientific accuracy. This process involves close collaboration between scientists, coproduction and communication experts, and graphic designers to produce high-impact explainers that address the needs of various stakeholder groups. WP10 developed a template and guidance for preparing science explainers. This guidance provided the key questions for the scientists to focus on while preparing the explainers (See Figure 2): • Definition: Can you please give us a definition of your topic? D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 9 nextGEMS munities from the nextGEMS far-field, such as broader user community, public, media, or policymakers. Although the target audience for this type of message are mainly far-field nextGEMS stakeholder groups, it also can provide near-field groups with updates on the progress in the project. Storylines can be presented in various formats, e.g., web-explorable story-maps, combining text, images and maps with geo-referenced data and simulation output. This type of material is especially adequate for near-field stakeholder groups, the target audience of the nextGEMS storylines, as it involves users additionally in its co-development process. However, we will also use summary reports and progress videos to communicate the key storyline findings to media, broader audience and policymakers. In particular, the fishery storyline that will apply nextGEMS data to better understand marine ecosystem dynamics and changes in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa will also target stakeholders and policymakers from this part of the world. The event where the storyline will be presented to gain most visibility is still under discussion. Videos are an easily accessible communication format both for experts and for broader audience. With 17 published videos and many more in the pipeline, nextGEMS makes sure to maintain hight project visibility and effective communication to all its target stakeholder groups. In addition, project scientists received a training to produce videos, which should further enhance this effective communication approach. nextGEMS simulations are fascinating demonstrations of the latest scientific achievements. Their visual appeal, together with the Vlog’s video outputs, makes it very unlikely that the project won’t capture the public imagination. Additionally, we share the video outputs across several platforms and conduct social media campaigns, while the consortia members share the videos in their networks. 7 Deliverable timeliness Is the deliverable delayed? no 8 Changes made and/or difficulties encountered, if any Not applicable. D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 16 nextGEMS 9 Sustainability 9.1 Links built with other deliverables, WPs, and synergies created with other projects There is a link with D10.1, D10.2 and D10.4. The basis for effective Communication and dissemination activities are strong links and communication with the whole project. 10 Full track of dissemination activities • Cycle 1 Hackathon 19 – 22 October 2021 in Berlin • ”Science meets Art” - NextCalendArt 2022 • Office Hour with IBERDROLA on solar energy in January 2022 • WWRP/SERA ”Weather and Society” Conference 28 Febrary – 11 March, 2022, online • UCM Student Hackathon, 01 – 03 April 2022 near Madrid • Cycle 2 Hackathon 26 June – 02 July 2022 in Vienna • Storms & Ocean summer slackathon 31 June – 06 July 2022 at the Bornö Institute for ocean and climate studies, Sweden • ”Science meets Art” - NextCalendArt 2023 • Mini-hackathon of Storms & Land at Wageningen University 04 – 06 April 2023 • Storylines presentation, EGU, 23 – 28 April, Vienna, Austria • Cycle 3 Hackathon 29 May – 02 June 2023 in Madrid, Spain 11 Full track of publications and IP Publications within the project can be found on our website: https://nextgems-h2020.eu/ publications/ D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 17 nextGEMS Figure 3: Energy Storyline communciation material D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 18 nextGEMS Figure 4: Storms and society poster presentation at the WWRP/SERA ”Weather and Society” Conference 2022 D10.4 Interim report on communication and dissemination activities 19