The National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology (DST) organised the first webinar on “Popular Science Writing” in collaboration with the University of Jammu under Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research (AWSAR) programme for research scholars to create new generation of science communicators.AWSAR webinar received a huge response with total 917 registered participants from 28 States and Union Territories across the country. The Webinar also had enthusiastic participation from 16 other countries.
Dr. Manoj K. Dhar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu, shared his experiences and expressed significance of science communication, especially for researchers. Dr. Dhar said that communication of research outcomes is equally important as the research for its ultimate connect to society.
Dr. Manoj Kumar Patairiya, Head & Adviser, National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC) addressed the participants and shared his views on the subject including Five Elements (Panch Tatwa) of Popular Science Writing, -- the language of communication, and identification of scientific topic, selection of mass media, focussed target audience, and the format of writing.
Dr. Nakul Parashar, Director, Vigyan Prasar, emphasized that young researchers should take leadership role in creating scientific temper and joy of performing science in labs, thus helping retention of bright students in science streams.
Dr. Rashmi Sharma, Senior Scientist DST, highlighted various achievements under AWSAR since its inception and encouraged all the participants to write a popular science story about their own research work, as it would help them to understand the subject better and create appreciation among people towards the efforts of scientists and worth of science thus connecting science to society.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) initiated a unique programme “AWSAR (Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research)” in 2018 to encourage young researchers enrolled in the PhD programme and working as PDFs at academic and scientific institutions across the country, towards popular science writing. The exciting research stories from these researchers would not only facilitate connexion of science to society but also add an interesting dimension of deeper understanding of research and its relevance to the authors.
AWSAR is a distinct effort to enhance writing skills through capacity building and recognition. A National level competition is organized for the last two years to invite stories from research scholars and postdoctoral fellows, thus creating ethos of science reporting to public. In last two years, AWSAR have received several accolades from print, social and digital media and appreciation of students pursuing Ph.D. In last two years, we have received an overwhelming response with more than 4500 submitted stories and anticipate that this initiative would create a large pool of communicators.
The scholars were introduced to the art of effective communication by Dr. T.V. Venkateswaran, Scientist F, Vigyan Prasar, who emphasized on the spirit of science, logic, and questioning with the help of an interesting presentation.
Dr. Jagdish Chander, Former Advisor, DST, clarified the difference between scholarly communication and popular science communication with vivid examples and made an enriching presentation.
The presentations followed by a very engaging question and answer session on various aspects of science writing, science journalism, and science communication. Dr. Bharat Bhushan and Dr. Gaurav Jain, Scientists, Vigyan Prasar, moderated the webinar.
