Research Day - University of Bologna - September, 15 th 2021

When does the publishing process end? What are the tools you can use to communicate your research? How to reach companies, organizations and institutions thanks to your research? How to translate a scientific paper into a post for social media?

These are some of the questions we tried to answer on Wednesday 15 September 2021 during the third Research Day organized by DiSA. After the editions of Forlì about "Research & Financing" (2019) and of Rimini about"Research & Third Mission" (2020), the 2021 edition in fact focused on the topic "Research & Communication".

After the institutional greetings by the Dean Angelo Paletta, the Head of the Research Commission Marco Maria Mattei and the delegate to the Research Day Fabrizio Palmucci, Annamaria Tuan and Andi Duqi, representing the Research Communication Commission, presented the strategy for the research communication in DiSA.

This was followed by speeches by Mirella Cerato, Head of University Communications and Matteo Benni, University Press Office, who illustrated the various services and communication channels offered by UniBO to communicate the research activities of the Department and of the faculty.

The morning session continued with the presentation by Alessandra Toni who presented the services offered by the company ENAGO, Paolo Aversa (Bayes Business School) who talked about his personal experience of media engagement and Giovanni Carrada (Consultant in the field of science communication) who closed the morning by emphasizing why it is important to get out of one's own spaces and reach a wider audience.

The afternoon session started with the introduction by Matteo Vignoli who provided some concrete examples of research communication on social media before starting the group works. The participants (more than 90 in presence and 30 online) were divided into groups with the task of translating a scientific paper regarding their scientific area into a communication that can be disseminated on social media (tweet, LinkedIN post) and through the more traditional channels (press release).

It was a rich and intense day that first of all allowed us to meet again in person after a long time and allowed us to understand the importance of research communication.

Communicating becomes a strategic weapon on which to focus on both at an individual level to increase one's visibility, citations and funding opportunities, and on an institutional level to increase the identity and image of the Department. There is a lot of work to be done but the first step has been done… stay tuned!