please take our GYA survey on science engagement

[Chan, Kai]

Hi folks,

I hope you’re all great. As a mission-oriented field, engagement is at the heart of conservation science. And yet many of us are in jobs where it’s unclear how engagement activities are measured or rewarded. On this topic, I have a three-fold request, on the part of the Global Young Academy.

1. (10-15 minutes) Please take our (confidential) survey: http://chanslab.ires.ubc.ca/research/scientists-and-engagementoutreach/ 

2. (3-5 minutes) Consider sending the linked contact-letter *(see below) to your manager/head of department or dean, with a note that you consider this to be important and would suggest that s/he promote the survey within your unit. We have indications that some departments and schools will see such a survey as central to their mandates, and we are offering tailored summary reports for participating departments.

3. (3-5 minutes) Send an email to disseminate the survey within your networks. You might use the template below, adding personalized comments (and possibly replacing words like ‘scientist’ or ‘researcher’). The survey gives people the opportunity to express strongly held opinions and values that are often at the heart of their decision to be in science/academia. If you’re on Twitter, you can re-tweet my tweet (@KaiChanUBC) from this morning.

Thanks so much,

Kai

--- Template email for dissemination ---

I’d like to recommend that you take a 10-15 minute survey that gets to the heart of what it means to be a scientist/researcher.

Whereas research outputs and impacts are receiving a great deal of attention, relatively little attention has been paid to the measurement of excellence in science engagement/outreach (which some argue is key to making science relevant and contribute to ‘a better world’).

A working group at the Global Young Academy is a launching a novel effort to understand how engagement is assessed in our jobs and how we perceive it. It also seeks to assess how these perceptions about engagement, measurement, and importance, differ between researchers and their managers/heads of department, etc.

Url for university, government, NGO and industry staff with a PhD: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/scientists_engagement/

Url for students and postdocs: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/student_scientists_engagement/

Please also pass this on to interested parties.

--- End template email for dissemination ---

* P.S. (re: contact letter): We have linked four versions, each for a different audience. Please use the one that is most appropriate. E.g.

• For 'science' department-heads or deans at universities, use "WG MESE GYA letterhead - scientist,uni,pdf”
• For other department-heads or deans at universities, broader than ’science’, use “… scholar,uni,pdf”
• For non-university organizations (such as government agencies), use “… manager,pdf”
• For professional organizations and societies, use “… professional,pdf” (e.g., we will target the Society for Conservation Biology). 

Please also feel free to translate these letters to other languages!

 

Kai M. A. Chan, Assoc Prof &

Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services)

GYA MESE Working Group Co-chair

CHANS Lab (Connecting Human and Natural Systems)

Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability

AERL Rm 438, 2202 Main Mall

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z4