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Science In Public

Science writers, communicators, media, training, and public relations

Research communication

We can provide all the services that any communication, marketing or PR business can provide, but with a science-driven perspective.

Our core services are:

Contact Niall Byrne on niall@scienceinpublic.com.au if you would like to tailor a service or to find out more.

Raise your personal research profile

If you want to raise your profile or your research team’s profile

Implementation plan This covers up to three hours of meeting in person or online, writing a short two to three-page plan with recommendations on social media, websites, messaging and other activities.

Social media plan and implementation. Up to three social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.) and support for one month, with options for continued support.

Website including setting up a site, writing/editing up to 1,500 words. Our preferred platform is WordPress.

Media and communication training

Articles, media releases, factsheets etc.

Media and stakeholder promotion we’ll help you with media and stakeholder promotion of your latest paper or discovery, working in with your institutional team.

Speaker promotion (if you’re ready) we will help you find opportunities to speak to public audiences. If you’re very good, then we can also seek commercial/corporate speaking opportunities. Fees by negotiation.

Raise your research team’s profile

Communication planning

We will create a 1 to 2-year communication plan for your idea, project, program, institute. This will help you identify your important audiences and how to reach them.

Online presence

  • A social media plan and implementation for you or your research group. 
  • Personal/research group website including setting up a site.

Training

  • Media and communication training in one of our scheduled courses
  • If you can confirm six or more places we can hold the training at your institute.
  • We also offer a range of bespoke training courses. Have a look here, or contact us for more information.

Media and stakeholder engagement

If you have a peer-reviewed invention, discovery, significant idea we can:

  • Write a story and publish a story on our Stories of Australian Science website and social media channels
  • Write a press release, liaise with your institute and help you and them issue the story to Australian audiences
  • Organise a media call/media conference/launch event

Prize nominations

We can mentor your researchers in how to nominate for major Australian science prizes, advising applicants on key criteria, and writing/editing nominations as required. 

Newsletters, reports, brochures, displays

We can assist with all your publications from concept to design and production.

Packages

We can offer a small discount on packages of the above if you engage us for a series of services over six to 12 months.

Raise your institute’s profile

For larger programs, centres of excellence, CRCs, university schools and faculties etc

We offer all the services of a corporate communication and public relations business, but through the focus of science.

We can help your organisation

  • Reach national and global media with your big announcements – major papers, launches, conferences.
  • Find new audiences – through our national and international promotions of science at AAAS, the World Conference of Science Journalists and similar networks of international journalists.
  • Make winning proposals and presentations to the ARC and other funding agencies.
  • Identify opportunities in prizes, ‘Years’, festivals and other events.
  • Mentor and promote your best researchers.

We promote (and challenge) universities with our work supporting Nature’s regional and global research indices.

In essence, we provide all the services of a PR agency – communication and social media strategies, websites, case studies and other publications, videos, issues management, training…

Why choose Science in Public?

Science in Public is Australia’s leading national science communication and public relations consultancy. Our team of staff and associates have over 150 years of accumulated experience in science communication and media.

  • We create communication and media campaigns that have impact for our clients.
  • We understand science and its interface with government, stakeholders, and society.
  • We are trusted advisors to Australia’s leading science organisations.
  • We mentor and support researchers in developing their own public profile.
  • We ensure our work remains true to the science.

Our results

  • The world’s first printed jet engine: we helped Monash and CSIRO secure a full sweep of ABC news and current affairs coverage for their jet engine. Then we attracted hundreds of stories across the world’s media including The Economist, Daily Mail, NHK Japan, and That led to the engine visiting Parliament House to see the Prime Minister, and visiting CeBit Sydney.
  • The Great Barrier Reef: we helped reveal the loss of half the coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef for the Australian Institute of Marine Science. That story attracted two front pages, hundreds of on-message stories around the world, and led to policy change and a new focus on control of crown-of-thorns starfish.
  • The God Particle: we helped CERN reveal the Higgs boson to the world, holding a series of press briefings, organising 130 interviews in 48 hours, and ensuring that Australian scientists from the universities of Melbourne, Monash, Adelaide, and Sydney led the Australian reporting.
  • Women in Science: we helped L’Oréal create their Women in Science program in Australia in 2007 and then, over nine years to 2015, make it one of the most prestigious prizes for women in science. Every year the Fellows featured in Fairfax papers and we generated hundreds of other stories on TV, radio, print and new media.
  • Wi-Fi and astronomy: we helped CSIRO and the Australian Government reveal the story of how Australian astronomer-engineers made wireless computing fast and reliable. Before our work there had been no public connection.
  • National Science Week we provide public relations support for Australia’s largest community festival.
  • International Years: we’ve helped organise a series of international year celebrations in Australia including Einstein Year (International Year of Physics), International Year of Astronomy, Biodiversity Year, International Year of Light, and the Evolution Festival.
  • Conferences: we’ve organised press rooms and public programs for high impact international conferences including the International Genetics Congress, the International Conference for High Energy Physics, the UN Advancing Global Health Conference, the International Botanical Congress and many others. The Genetics Congress alone generated 90 minutes of television coverage, 16 hours of metro and national radio, and 16 pages in The Age.
  • Winning conferences for Australia: we won and organised the World Congress of Science Journalists for Melbourne in 2007. We secured the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers for Melbourne in 2009, exposing hundreds of international journalists and producers to Australian science stories.
  • Engaging with Canberra: we’ve organised high impact forums in Parliament House on Women in Science, climate change, biosecurity and genetics, and we’ve participated in Science Meets Parliament and many other events. We know our way around the Press Gallery.

Our terms and conditions

We use WordPress.com for all personal websites. We’re happy to work with institutional and other platforms but we may charge a little extra.

We’ll give you password access to all online assets we create for you and give you ownership of the site once our work is complete.

Our fees

All fees are excluding GST. We can assist with graphic design, logos, photography, and videography at an additional fee. Interstate travel if needed will be charged at cost using cheapest available Virgin fares or equivalent.

Payment terms:

We will start work on your project as soon as we get email confirmation, and a first payment.

For projects of $3,000 or less we ask for payment on commencement. For larger projects are usual payment terms are 40 per cent on commencement, 40 per cent on delivery of materials, and 20 per cent on final completion. Our invoice terms are seven days. We welcome payment by MasterCard, Visa, and EFT. If you send us a cheque, we’ll eventually remember what to do with it.