SP0127: Linking Action and Research on Sustainability (LARS)

Status: COMPLETED March 2014 - April 2015

'Linking Action and Research on Sustainability' (LARS) is a new science communication initiative which aims to provide visibility for McGill scholars working on positive contributions/solutions to sustainability related problems. The goal is to help McGill scholars to engage in outreach and share their work with a broader audience, through brown bag lunch events, videos, blog posts, and workshops, with a focus on social media and online promotion.

Read the full project description

Ever start reading a published report or want to attend a conference because it sounds fascinating from the title and description only to become quickly discouraged once the subject matter is explained in such a way that only experts in the field would understand? The 'Linking Action and Research on Sustainability' (LARS) project can wants to bring things back down to a more straightforward level!

McGill University is home to a host of world-class scientists who often tackle sustainability in their day-to-day research and teaching. Despite their best intentions, communication of this research is typically directed at other scientists and academics, with the highly specified language used in journals and conferences. This research is crucially important in creating a  more sustainable society, yet scientific literacy among the public is low, and this is where the LARS Project group wants to make a difference.

The LARS project benefits from the social media, video and storytelling expertise of its members who are also involved in the Montréal à Votre Service Écologique and McGill at Work initiatives. The group aims to use their knowledge base to create a strong framework for communicating science through video, storytelling and social media. This will increase the visibility of the exiting work happening across a range of disciplines at McGill, for audiences both within McGill and outside the university community.

Provisions from the SPF are being used for the establishment of an online science outreach hub. This hub signifies a partnership between the McGill at Work team and the Montréal à votre Service Écologique initiatives and creates a magnet for science outreach at McGill. The hub will be an open and integrated social-media platform on sustainability; it will strengthen the culture of science communication and outreach within the McGill community by combining Facebook, Twitter and a website. Among its functions is building lasting linkages across a diversity of campus groups and academic units working on issues of sustainability science at McGill.

The LARS project builds off existing McGill communication efforts such as McGill at Work, Montréal à Votre Service Écologique, and the McGill Liber Ero Communication Training.

View photos

May 14th, 2014 Video Workshop at Thomson House Ballroom

Connect with this project

 

Group

Dialogues on Sustainability

Contact

elena.bennett [at] mcgill.ca (Dr. Elena Bennett) (Project Leader)

catherine.potvin [at] mcgill.ca (Dr. Catherine Potvin) (Project Leader)

carly.ziter [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Carly Ziter (MSc.)) (Project Leader)

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