Europlanet nodes : a network to improve communication

1
Europlanet nodes a network to improve
communication

• Yaël Nazé, University of Liège

2
Europlanet

• Europlanet (EUROpean PLAnetlogy NETwork) research
  infrastructure
• Funded by the EC
• FP6, 2005-2008
• FP7, for 4 yrs since 2009
• Aims
• Connect European planetology scientists
• Define key science goals
• Exchange ideas and persons
• Build an interactive database
• Provide access to facilities and field sites

3
Outreach in Europlanet

• Vital component
• See Anitas talk for current/future activities
  (OIL, media center, award scheme)
• Already done in previous FP
• Multilingual DVDs
• Astronomy recipes
• Best-practice guides
• Contests
• PR during EPSC

4
Outreach in Europlanet

• Outreach officers
• Node network why ?
• Europe multilingual
• Forum for new ideas and best practices
• Promotion at the European level of local
  planetary activities, promotion at the local
  level of the European planetary activities

5
Europlanet
6
The node network

• What ? A national node point of contact for
  all outreach activities related to Europlanet in
  the country
• Bottom-up
• Top-down

7
The node network

• What ? Top-down
• Promote Europlanet amongst scientists (i.e. award
  scheme, media training,)
• Promote Europlanet amongst media public
• Respond to queries from the general media and
  public about Europlanet planetary sciences
• Link with media (e.g. publicize Europlanet PRs)
• Foster European-wide outreach opportunities on
  planetary sciences

8
The node network

• What ? Bottom-up
• Organize and/or be aware of local outreach
  opportunities/experiences in planetary sciences
• Identify best practices, innovations, and new
  techniques
• Promote them at the European level
• Build a list of experts in this domain
• Promote to the media centerthe national science
  results
• Fill the national part of the Europlanet
  outreach webpage

9
The node network

• Examples
• In 2007, 50th anniversary of Sputnik contest a
  very spatial year organized in 8 countries for
  children (drawing contest), amateur astronomers
  (photo contest), and artists (art contest)
  national/European winners
• In 2009, promotion/organization of the contests
  Cassini scientist for a day and Galilean
  Nights Photography contest

10
The node network

• Where ? 13 European countries !

11
The node network

• Where ? 13 European countries !

12
The node network

• How ?
• Regular teleconferences
• Face-to-face during EPSC
• National node annual meeting
• Outreach workshops
• Node newsletter (2/year)
• General info
• Case study
• Calendar of events

13
Conclusion

• Outreach Science partnerships
• Node network
• Needed when it involves many countries or regions
  of different habits/languages/
• To improve the efficiency of the outreach