CRI#1: Welcome

8 Abril 2024, 18:00 • Ana Moutinho

Dear All,

Many thanks for attending the first lesson of our new course Communication for Research and Innovation.

Please find attached the presentation from last evening.

In case you choose to undergo the continuous evaluation, please find below the assignments:

Biosketch – write your professional biographical sketch (text + photo; between 500-1500 characters with spaces); publish it as a pdf or image on MSTEAMS before 15th April 08h00. We’ll browse through them during next class. (Please find mine here: https://www.cienciavitae.pt/pt/E112-0C5E-8C90) 

SciArt pitch – choose an art object (any type of art) and present it to class from the point of view of its scientific or technological content or features; one slide showing the object + oral presentations up to 2 minutes on our last session, 13th May.

Final essay (valid also for those who decide to go only for this evaluation form) – choose a science, technology or innovation theme and write a popular science essay (maximum 5000 character with spaces) as it would appear in a newspaper or newsmagazine; email as pdf until deadline 27th May, 18h00 (first season) or 24th June, 18h00 (second season).

Notes from Session 1:

Google yourself; claim your digital content; consider a platform to host your CV/portfolio/blog/etc.; 

Remember your values, work upon your thesaurus, superpowers and your one-liner (use as bio in social media);

Have a professional picture taken;

Audit and curate any social media account; consider its professional use and build your personal brand;

Choose a colour scheme and a font that works for you (consider graphic norms from your institution affiliation: ISEG)

Browse Pinterest for “graphic CV”; there are tons.

If you feel adventurous, write your obituary (maybe as a tweet? https://twitter.com/NYTObits; I did it below.)

Ana was a student at heart. She loved the school so much she never quite left, having worked at the university until her last breath at 51 and a half.

Ana started as an experimental biologist in the 90s. She did her PhD in Lisboa and Edinburgh, having produced 100 pages of a doctoral thesis around the story of calcium in the polarised growth in plant cells.  

Indeed, Ana was a storyteller and journaled a lot of science stories in the media, while providing communication training for science students and researchers.

Since policies are all about narratives, Ana quite loved science policy studies and had her go at social sciences research just before responding to a newspaper job ad asking for a research admin.

Then, by the time Ana had given birth to a gorgeously rounded baby girl, she professionally landed into research management with the multitasking capabilities developed by motherhood. 

Over the last 20 years she serviced the most relevant skill in the trade: to help researchers believe in themselves, so that they are confident to craft workable ideas. 

Ana spent her last evening launching a new course for master students to whom she confided her love for the obituaries. Famous last words, quite literally. 

Epitaph: Science is what I do not what I am.

Have a nice week.

Best,

Ana

---