Communications Officers Meeting to Foster Collaboration

Mar 14, 2016
LUND – On 7 March, BrightnESS and SINE2020 (EU-funded projects which support the construction of the European Spallation Source – ESS), welcomed about 30 Communications Officers from partner institutes in Lund for a one-day meeting on how to develop joint awareness-raising initiatives.

Status reports from the projects

Allen Weeks, Head of Communications, External Relations, and In-Kind Contributions Management at ESS opened the meeting with a presentation on the progress and status of ESS, highlighting the shared ownership of all of the ESS member countries.

Next, presentations of the EU projects BrightnESS, SINE2020 and Interreg Cross Border Science and Society, demonstrated examples of communication measures supporting the ESS and stressed the importance of transnational communication efforts for a successful outcome, which generates exposure for all ESS partners. 

Workshops on central communication topics

The day also featured presentations by two communications specialists, who shared their knowledge of working with communication in public arenas.

Benny Gommers, Strategy Director at NovaComm (ICF Mostra), a leading integrated communication agency specialising in European public information and communication campaigns, presented the latest trends within digital communication. The presentation specifically featured trends within video, content, social media and strategy when working with online communication. In his workshop he presented further cases that were discussed among the workshop participants.

In addition, Terry O’Connor, Head of Communications at the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, presented his experience on Communicating for Impact. His presentation highlighted the importance of communicating everyday benefits of science in order to reach a broad audience, such as governments and businesses – and to foster even more science.

Next steps for joint communication

During the day, the participants also had the opportunity to visit the ESS construction site outside of Lund for a first-hand view of the progress of the project.

The meeting was an opportunity for Communication Officers of ESS partners to make new connections and brainstorm collaboration ideas such as co-creation of content for digital channels to participation or co-organisation in national and trans-national events.

Click on the Project Wiki at the top of the website (requires login) to view the Design Guide for BrightnESS as well as a number of templates to be used for BrightnESS-related branding.