Shared Knowledge, Shared Enthusiasm: Seven New Science Communication Projects Approved

As a geoinformatics specialist at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Bernd Resch’s research topics include, for example, how artificial intelligence can be used to improve spatiotemporal analyses enough to allow accurate predictions of future developments, such as the spread of an infection. One focus is on data from social media and the interpretation of texts and images using AI methods. Resch’s Science Communication project “Health Detectives” will communicate findings and methods from this research in workshops and laboratory experiments. In addition to the general public, the main target group are middle and high school students who use real case studies to learn how hypotheses are formed, how machine learning works, how data is obtained from social media, what statements can be made based on it, and how the evaluations can be used for predictions. Participants train AI models themselves and create maps to recognize spatial patterns in the spread of disease. Learning also takes place through play in an “escape room” in the iDEAS:lab at the University of Salzburg, where participants have to overcome a fictitious pandemic. “It is very important to us to create an understanding of how scientific processes work so that citizens can form an informed opinion. This is essential for a functioning democracy,” explains Bernd Resch.

Most people know that a healthy diet is important. However, very few people realize that the criterion of “healthy” depends on what gut microorganisms can do with the food. This gut microbiome is the field of research of microbiologist David Berry from the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science at the University of Vienna: “Without the gut microbiome, we would lack a large proportion of the enzymes we need to digest food,” he says. The WKP project BaMiKo, led by Berry, focuses on the role of dietary fiber for the gut microbiome. Only about 15% of the European population has enough fiber in their diet. Working with students enrolled in an advanced cooking course, healthy recipes are developed, cooked, and presented in cooking shows on social media channels like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The videos also inform viewers about the complex relationship between the gut microbiome and health. David Berry: “I am very excited about the creative ideas, the recipes, and the videos that we are making together with food bloggers. I hope that this will enable us to reach a wider audience and, above all, to provide young people with more knowledge about nutrition. I am convinced that most people would pay more attention to what they eat if they knew the connections.” The BaMiKo project is funded by the FWF as part of the Sustainable Food Systems program.

Corina Madreiter-Sokolowski, Associate Professor specializing in molecular aging at the Medical University of Graz, wants to use her Science Communication grant to make findings from aging research known to a broader public and encourage more young people to pursue a career in science. In her experience, both of these objectives are most successful when kids have the opportunity to interact with researchers directly and carry out research experiments themselves while still at school. “It's about having the most direct contact possible with researchers so that the students gain an insight into what research means in concrete terms. It is important that they realize there are no wrong questions, every question will be answered.” The primary target group of “Aging Research Hands-On” are girls from peripheral schools in Austria. “Girls and young women are often very interested in chemistry and biology, but sometimes lack the courage to formulate a scientific career as a clear goal,” says Madreiter-Sokolowski. In “Flying Aging Labs,” students have the opportunity to learn about methods of aging research directly at their school, gain research experience in summer internships in Graz, and interact with scientists as part of an aging symposium for young people. They also have the chance to pass on their knowledge to a wider public at the Long Night of Research. Madreiter-Sokolowski says, “Contact with students also helps us researchers to think outside the box, as we are often too focused on the smallest details.”

Coral reefs are complex ecosystems which are regarded as tipping points in the climate system and are acutely endangered by climate change – these connections affect everyone, but are at the same time extremely difficult to communicate. This complexity is at the heart of the Science Communication project headed by Angelina Ivkić, a researcher at the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna: Together with game developers, graphic designers, and video producers, middle and high school students will develop an interactive, multimedia game based on the escape game format and suitable for players aged 13 and over. Content is developed jointly, with researchers from different disciplines supporting the students with their expertise. The aim is not only to find the right measures that could save the coral reef, but also to answer questions like how to show ocean acidification in a video. Once the first prototype of the game has been developed by the students, other young people can vote on the design of the videos for the game. A public competition will be held to generate ideas, and winners will have the opportunity to attend the video workshop. “The participatory approach encourages young people to question knowledge critically and to think about how to solve problems. It's much easier in a playful environment,” says Ivkić. She expects that the process of game development will also help participants understand basic scientific research. “You experience that even processes that may not have an immediately usable result can be extremely important. This is how science progresses.”

Through her research work, the Romance studies expert Elissa Pustka knows that it is sometimes simply the fear of making mistakes when pronouncing French that prevents many people from learning French successfully and takes the joy out of the French language. Comics and humorous visualizations, which are designed in a participatory way by students, are the means of choice for the researcher, who works at the University of Vienna, to help allay this fear. “Good pronunciation is not just cosmetic, but is extremely important in order to be understood by native speakers and to appear competent and likeable. To show this, a few years ago I created a cartoon together with a Belgian comic artist. Later, I found some great cartoons on postcards issued by the TV channel TV5 Monde, which humorously illustrate that a small difference in pronunciation can make a big difference in meaning. I am very pleased that the creators of these cartoons are now involved in this project,” says Pustka. Her Science Communication project will convey content from her FWF-funded project “Pronunciation in Progress: French Schwa and Liaison (Pro2F)” in a three-step process: Freecards, comics, caricatures, and social media activities will be used to create initial awareness; a website and brochures will provide background information and, finally, workshops and a competition will invite the public to actively participate. Pustka says, “I'm looking forward to working with the illustrators and many creative students to create great French materials that will make you want to learn French pronunciation. It's not as difficult as many people think. You can achieve a lot with just a few tricks.”

In this Science Communication project, sociologist Ulrike Zartler turns the usual approach to the topic of young people and the Covid-19 pandemic on its head: Instead of addressing young people primarily as those affected by the crisis, Zartler and other researchers at the University of Vienna are focusing on them as experts in overcoming crises. “In the FWF project “PACE,” which dealt with the situation of parents and families during the pandemic, we saw how important it would be to give teens a voice and show how this group has managed to get through the pandemic more or less intact. So we will be working with these kids to develop a survival guide with tips for the various phases that young people go through during a crisis,” explains Zartler. “Teens were and continue to be particularly hard hit by the pandemic, and many have become experts in resilience.” Based on a discussion of the “PACE” research findings with a group of 14 to 19-year-olds, the teens will develop the survival guide themselves. It will be published in both digital and analog formats in March 2025 – in time for the fifth anniversary of the first lockdowns in Austria. “We will be using different digital media for this. The young people will also be involved in the dissemination and public relations work for this participatory project.” This Science Communication project provides access to experience-based knowledge that was previously only available second-hand through parents' reports. “I am really looking forward to the discussions and am curious about the resilience factors that we will hear about,” says Zartler.

The clinical term for a phenomenon experienced by many people is “sarcopenia”: It describes not only the loss of muscle strength and mass in old age, but also the change in the structure of muscle tissue that occurs with the aging process. “There is increased storage of fat and connective tissue inside the muscle,” explains sports scientist Robert Csapo from the University of Vienna. Sarcopenia has a negative effect on general health through various processes, so maintaining muscle strength is desirable in order to prevent illness. “Muscles are actually the largest human organ.” Csapo recently completed an FWF research project that focused, among other things, on the question of whether sarcopenia can be counteracted with strength training. “One phenomenon is that we lose more muscle strength as we get older than can be explained by the loss of muscle mass,” says Csapo. “We were able to show that strength training can significantly slow down this loss of strength.” In his project “Extra Strong,” Csapo will be working with a molecular biologist, a communications researcher, and a designer to implement a kind of roadshow to bring the results of his research to a wider audience. People can attend to find out information like the connections between muscles, strength and health, test their own muscle strength, and take home scientifically based training and nutrition recommendations.