The Outreach Committee is active in sharing our science with society at large. We do this in several ways, ranging from public talks, hosting students, offering tours, writing laymen’s articles, organizing events, contributing to local science fairs, and opening our institute doors during Zpannend Zernike! We also update ERIBA’s website and social media accounts:
Some examples of our activities are the ERIBA Career Days, Zpannend Zernike, which features experiments for kids, and the development of our ‘Science in a box” concept, which allows lay people to perform regeneration experiments with flatworms.
On Wednesday 24 April 2019, the second edition of the ERIBA Career Day took place, introducing PhD students and Postdocs to career opportunities outside of academia.
A variety of enthusiastic guest speakers shed light on their motives to leave a traditional academic career behind, letting personal talents and interests lead them to Science Communication and Publishing (Máté Pálfy, The Company of Biologists in Cambridge) and Science Outreach and Education (Eva Teuling, University of Groningen). Other speakers told their stories of working in pharmaceutical companies (Seong-Joo Koo, Janssen Pharma, Antwerpen), or of starting their own company (Maxime Willems, Proef, Gent). Furthermore, the audience learnt about working in Sales and Marketing (Marnix Wieffer, Elsevier), running an research institute as Manager (Paula van Tijn, AMOLF, Amsterdam) and being a Consultant on funding opportunities (Annemieke van der Goot, Vindsubsidies).
The speakers’ stories were aimed to remind young scientists that an academic background provides them with a set of skills that can be used in many different types of careers. The Career Day concluded with a Meet the Speaker Mixer, giving the PhDs and Postdocs a chance to network and engage in informal discussions with the speakers.
The ERIBA Career Day 2019 was organized by members of the ERIBA outreach team: Anita Pras, Alejandra Hernández Segura, Katya Dvorianinova, Megha Pandey-Upadhyay, Sylvia Hoks and Judith Paridaen.
The current members of The Outreach Committee are (in alphabetic order):
Feel free to contact us at [email protected] for inquiries.
“Science in a Box” is an outreach initiative by ERIBA, created by Stijn Mouton, designed to foster interaction between scientists, teachers, and students.
The Science Boxes contains highly regenerative planarians (S. mediterranea) along with the necessary materials to conduct regeneration experiments in classrooms or even at home. This unique hands-on experience will help to explore topics such as regeneration, stem cells, and the value of model organisms.
“Science in Box” was the focal project that earned the ERIBA Outreach Team the KNAW Gewaardeerd! prize for science communication. More details can be found here:
For more information about Science in a Box, or to receive Science Boxes, mail to: [email protected]
In collaboration with Scholierenacademie and the outreach team at the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA), and funded by the Geawaardeerd! Premie, we created the Forever Young teaching package for biology teachers. This package introduces students to the biology of ageing through 2 to 3 lessons, encouraging them to explore both lifestyle factors, like smoking, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle, and intrinsic factors like genetics. By conducting independent research, students are guided to reflect on their own habits and draw the conclusion that adopting a healthy lifestyle early on can improve their chances of ageing well. For more information, visit: Forever Young (Dutch)
