5793442
doi
10.5281/zenodo.5793442
oai:zenodo.org:5793442
user-ri-vis
user-eu
Adams, Daniel
Boettcher, Markus
Cloete, Karen
D'Alessandro, Umberto
Hamer, Michelle
Herbst, Kobus
Hillhouse, Gregory
Khumalo, Langa
Kiragga, Agnes
Kirrane, Declan
Ndisi, Mylène
Neethling, Johannes
Ramoutar-Prieschl, Rakeshnie
Sathekge, Mike
Scriba, Manfred
Sharma, Anjali
Tiplady, Adrian
Todd, Jim
Vichi, Marcello
Costa Abecasis, Rita
EMBRC Portugal / CCMAR
Stechmann, Bahne
EU-OPENSCREEN
Adams, Daniel
Department of Science and Innovation (Republic of South Africa)
Communication guidelines for European research infrastructures: engaging with stakeholders in African countries
Gaber, Sabrina
EMBRC
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Research infrastructure
international
collaboration
communication
guidelines
strategy
Europe
Africa
Science
Research
<p>This guideline document aims to provide European research infrastructure (EU RI) Communication Officers and other RI stakeholders with tools and recommendations to develop communication strategies to effectively engage with African stakeholders. It was designed to serve as a roadmap for developing context-appropriate communications with African stakeholders, in view of increasing RI visibility to target audiences and to make RIs more ‘findable’ on the web (and on their respective websites, with clear information regarding international collaboration or other opportunities). </p>
<p>Developed as part of the Horizon 2020-funded RI-VIS project (https://ri-vis.eu), the document is based on a survey, which was filled out by 22 respondents from Belgium, Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda, and Zambia. </p>
<p>The main takeaways from the survey include the desire for collaborative approaches, including, but not limited to, staff exchanges and training, and the need to consider limited funding opportunities when reaching out to potential targets. It does not seem realistic to consider African stakeholders as another (future) potential market for EU RI services, whereby services would be paid for at full market cost; alternative, more collaborative approaches, based on local context and needs, may thus be more appropriate. Some respondents indicated difficulty knowing how to reach out to EU RI stakeholders and ensure timely follow-up. This highlights the need for EU RIs to have appropriate outreach strategies in place, with pre-identified contact points and a process for responding to inquiries (in addition to seeking collaboration). </p>
<p>Some of the findings are applicable to other regions: the need for cultural sensitivity, awareness of the local socio-economic/political context, attention to language (and the nuances certain terms may carry), the need for clear captivating messages, the importance of collaborative approaches (involving the non-EU participants as leaders in project design), etc. Ultimately, communication serves to support organisational objectives; here we can see that communication can also inform RIs’ international outreach strategies, providing a new lens to see and engage with the world.</p>
Zenodo
2021-12-20
info:eu-repo/semantics/report
5793441
user-ri-vis
user-eu
award_title=Expanding research infrastructure visibility to strengthen strategic partnerships; award_number=824063; award_identifiers_scheme=url; award_identifiers_identifier=https://cordis.europa.eu/projects/824063; funder_id=00k4n6c32; funder_name=European Commission;
1640051328.570103
807836
md5:776ba0972ba8cf05bcc475fc2ce439aa
https://zenodo.org/records/5793442/files/RI-VIS_CommGuidelines_Africa.pdf
public
10.5281/zenodo.5793441
isVersionOf
doi