SciComm

I work as a Communication Consultant for the European Environment Agency (EEA). For this role, I manage communication activities for the In-Situ segment of Copernicus, the Earth Observation component of the EU space programme.

Coordinated by the EEA, the In-Situ segment is a vital part of Copernicus. It relies on an extensive landscape of data providers, which collect non-space-borne geospatial data. This includes observation data from ground-, sea-, or airborne sensors, as well as reference and ancillary data. Such data is essential for generating, calibrating, and validating the space-based data, products, and services offered by Copernicus and its satellites.

My responsibilities include a variety of communication tasks, such as:

• Liaise, together with the EEA communications team, with different Copernicus bodies related to communication.
• Designing promotional materials.
• Producing written, non-technical content to highlight the benefits of the In-Situ segment for society. These include:
  • Use case stories: Showcasing applications of In-Situ data for Copernicus services and engaging stakeholders and potential users.
  • Feature articles: Addressing broad societal challenges and demonstrating how In-Situ contributes to resolving them, aimed at the general public.
  • News items: Providing updates on significant developments and information relevant to the In-Situ community.
• Creating social media content.
• Producing videos and conducting video interviews.
• Updating website content.
• Organising webinars.
• Developing and distributing issues of the In-Situ newsletter.

I work as a science writer at Science Wave, where I create astronomy communication content for the European Southern Observatory (ESO, the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory) and the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre.

My content is primarily designed for the social media platforms of these organisations, aiming to enhance the visibility of their scientific, corporate, and outreach initiatives, especially among the general public. A key focus is promoting the groundbreaking discoveries made by astronomers worldwide using ESO facilities and telescopes. Additionally, for ESO Supernova, I also prepare announcements and promote educational activities, as well as the permanent exhibition The Living Universe.

I also assist in responding to inquiries directed to ESO and ESO Supernova via social media, ensuring the answers are accessible and engaging for non-experts.

I served as a storytelling consultant for the European Environment Agency (parental leave coverage). This role saw me responsible for the creation of written, non-technical content aimed at promoting the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) and its benefits to society.

CLMS is one of the six thematic services of Copernicus, the Earth Observation component of the EU space programme. Managed jointly by the EEA and the DG Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, it provides comprehensive geographical data on land cover, land use, vegetation, water cycles, and more to users globally, supporting various environmental applications.

Specifically, I created:

• Use case stories: targeting CLMS stakeholders and potential users, these stories showcase successful applications of CLMS data in real-world scenarios.
• Feature articles: aimed at the general public, these pieces address broad societal challenges and illustrate how CLMS can contribute to solving them.
• News items: targeting the whole CLMS community, these updates share important information and developments within CLMS.

The creation of these texts involved collaborating with technical staff and CLMS users to gather inputs and identify the story angle. The texts are published on the CLMS website and promoted on CLMS social channels. You can find samples of my work in the Portfolio section.

I served as a Senior Consultant at SpaceTec Partners (Germany and Belgium), a boutique consultancy in the space sector whose array of services includes: strategy and technology consulting, communication activities, and interdisciplinary project management mainly for public institutions (e.g. European Commission, European Space Agency, European Union Agency for the Space Programme, European Parliament, National Ministries, etc.). SpaceTec’s areas of activity cover space (Earth observation, navigation, satellite communications, exploration and situational awareness), geo-information, security & defence, transportation & aviation, mobile & mobility, and energy.

One of my key roles was as the project manager for the Support Office of Copernicus. Copernicus is the Earth Observation component of the EU Space Programme, dedicated to monitoring our planet and its environment for the benefit of all European citizens. It provides valuable information services derived from satellite and in-situ (non-space) data. Managed by the European Commission, the programme is implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Ocean.

The Copernicus Support Office has the overarching objective to boost the visibility and user uptake of Copernicus, and to assist existing or potential new users, including academia, decision makers, media, stakeholders at large, and the general public. My duties as the manager of the Copernicus Support Office included:

• Managing and animating the international networks Copernicus Relays and Copernicus Academy, in particular through the organisation of webinars, videoconferences and events such as their annual general assembly.
• Providing tailored support to the European Commission for various communication and user acceptance activities.
• Supporting events and activities organised by members of the Copernicus ecosystem.
• Coordinating the creation of Copernicus promotional materials (including digital materials and the dedicated podcast series Let’s Talk EU Space).
• Overseeing the weekly production and distribution of the Copernicus Observer articles.
• Overseeing the collection and analysis of communication Key Performance Indicators of the entities responsible for the implementation and operation of the Copernicus services.
• Producing detailed activity reports for the European Commission.

I also crafted content for SpaceTec Partner’s corporate communication. This involved producing journalistic articles in various formats showing:

• The consultancy services SpaceTec Partners provided to numerous clients.
• SpaceTec Partners’ participation and role in various international projects.

In developing these pieces, I was responsible for gathering relevant information and insights from colleagues involved in the featured projects, identifying the most compelling angles for the stories, and writing the contributions.

I served as a project manager in science communication at ICONS (Italy) and at the youris.com European Research Media Center (Belgium). In this roles, I designed and led communication and dissemination activities for numerous large-scale, international research projects funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme of the European Commission.

In particular, I co-authored a working paper that outlines ICONS’ integrated methodology for assessing the effectiveness of communication and dissemination activities of research projects. This innovative methodology features two key tools: the community engagement index and the communication effectiveness quadrants.

The Horizon 2020 projects for which I have been the communication and dissemination leader are (between parentheses the focus of the project and my periods of involvement):

• ASTRABAT (design of new Lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, January 2020 – April 2021)
• HOUSEFUL (development of circular solutions for the housing sector, May 2018 – May 2022)
• STARDUST (implementation of urban solutions for smart cities, April 2018 – April 2021)
• URBAN GreenUP (implementation of nature-based solutions for more sustainable cities, June 2017 – May 2022)
• FETFX (promotion of EU-funded research projects on Future and Emerging Technologies (FET), January 2019 – May 2020)
• PROTON (development of societal computer simulations modelling the recruitment processes to organised crime and terrorist networks, March 2018 – September 2019)
• EFFECT (promotion of EU-funded research projects on Future and Emerging Technologies (FET), June 2017 – December 2018. The above mentioned FETFX project was the continuation of EFFECT)
• FEAT (exploring art as a channel for science communication, June – October 2017)

My duties as a communication and dissemination leader of the above projects included:

• Design and implementation of the overall communication and dissemination strategy
• Identification of the main stakeholders and the most suitable communication channels and formats
• Development of the project visual identity, website and dissemination materials such as videos, leaflets, flyers, brochures, roll-ups, factsheets, best-practice kits, etc (in close collaboration with graphic designers, video makers, and web developers)
• Content creation and curation
• Preparation of news items to promote the main project outcomes
• Project website management
• Social media management
• Newsletter design
• Event organisation, promotion and management
• Preparation of project reports to the European Commission
• Quantitative assessment of the communication impacts (see the working paper linked above for the adopted impact-assessment methodology)

As part of the EFFECT project, I co-organized the workshop “European Leadership through Disruptive Technologies: Future and Emerging Technologies towards 2030,” held at the European Parliament on 7 March 2018, in Brussels, Belgium.

During the FETFX project, I also co-organised Journalist-in-the-lab. This initiative selected young students from science communication schools and universities across Europe, giving them the possibility to visit top European research institutes and gather materials for new stories on Future and Emerging Technologies (FET). The two research institutes that participated in this initiative and hosted the selected students were the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona, both located on the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain).

The websites of the FETFX/EFFECT and STARDUST projects, which I co-managed, were bestowed the 2018 .eu Web Awards in the “Laurels” and “Better World” categories, respectively. The .eu Web Awards is an online competition held every year since 2014. It acknowledges the best websites with .eu or .ею (Cyrillic script) extensions. The prize is organised by EURid, the registry manager of the .eu and .ею country code top-level domains upon appointment of the European Commission in 2003. The objective of the award is to enhance the visibility of beautiful and impactful .eu and .ею websites.

I completed an internship in science journalism at the Department of Communication of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory. The internship took place at the ESO Headquarters in Garching near Munich, Germany.

ESO’s Department of Communication handles all aspects of internal and external communication for the organisation, including media relations, content production, public and local outreach, digital communication, and internal communication. It also works closely with the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre on astronomy education activities.

During my internship, I contributed to preparing ESO news and press releases, blog posts, publications, web pages, video scripts and other public communication products. You can find samples of my work in the Portfolio section. In particular, I helped prepare communication materials for the groundbreaking first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, a major achievement by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration. Other tasks I was responsible for were social media monitoring and analytics and press clipping collection.

I gained deep knowledge of science communication by completing the following study programmes:

• Online and media writing: this module, offered by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol, UK), ran online for 10 weeks between April and July 2022. It focused on science writing techniques suitable for non-academic audiences, delving into key writing structures and principles with an emphasis on online writing. Throughout the course, students considered how to identify compelling stories in scientific research, adapt the writing for different audiences, and other aspects of science writing, such as crafting effective press release. The final assignment was the production of a 2500-word science writing portfolio consisting of three pieces of writing for three different audiences, along with promotional social media material. The genres students could choose from included news stories, blog posts, feature stories (long-form writing), and press releases. One piece had to effectively communicate risk and/or statistics to a lay audience. The three articles I wrote are:
  • Astronomers find the first isolated black hole ever observed (news story)
  • Asteroids striking the Earth: how likely is that? (feature story)
  • Sorry, your zodiac sign is wrong (blog post)
• Erice International School of Science Journalism: the school is organised by the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture and supported by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Le Scienze (Italian edition of Scientific American), and the Enrico Fermi Research Center. This annual week-long event is held in Erice, Italy. I was awarded a grant by the organisers to attend the 2017 edition. The theme of the 2017 edition was “Unveiling the Universe: when Science hits the News” (see programme and lecturers here).
• Post-graduate programme in science journalism and communication: offered by La Sapienza University in Rome (Italy), it centres on multimedia journalism and communication strategies. I completed it during the 2016/2017 academic year, earning the highest distinction (110/110 with honours). I was awarded a grant for being the best student in the programme that academic year. My thesis work is available at the following link:
  • European FET Research Projects on High Performance Computing and QuantumTechnologies: Analysis of the Online Communication Strategies