Project Communication: More Important Than Ever
Strategic project communication and dissemination helps to increase the impact of research and innovation. Not only does it help explain the wider societal relevance of science, it also builds support for future research, ensures uptake of results within the scientific community, and opens up potential business opportunities for novel products or services. Most importantly, since Horizon 2020 projects use public funds, we owe it to the general public to explain what we are doing. In this series, communication professionals from COMBACTE and IMI share their experiences with project communication.
According to the Horizon 2020 communication, dissemination and exploitation guidelines, “excellent science needs effective communication and dissemination. Bringing research and its outcomes to the attention of non-scientific audiences, scientific peers, potential business partners or policymakers fosters collaboration and innovation.”
The COMBACTE Communications Office is responsible for all internal and external communications on consortium activities. Their mission is to ensure transparency, keep stakeholders informed, and most importantly showcase and disseminate the science produced in COMBACTE. Communication is a key element for all Horizon 2020 projects, including the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) under which COMBACTE is funded.
COMBACTE’s Communications Officer Adelina Prioteasa has a background in Communication and Media, and has worked in the IT and offshore fields as a communication professional before working for COMBACTE. “I became very attached to the healthcare field, especially because I keep learning so much about infectious diseases. I never realized the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) until I started working in COMBACTE. It occurred to me that there must be many others outside the healthcare field who do not realize this either. For this reason I am really motivated to work in such a project.
Doing project communication in this field is dynamic, no day is the same. It’s wonderful to see so many initiatives and collaborations between the academic and the pharmaceutical field in tackling the issue of AMR. But most importantly, sharing the science coming from these activities is extremely vital. Now more than ever”.
In this 3rd blog of the series Adelina shares her thoughts on project communication in COMBACTE, and the value of sharing the science.
“By sharing the results and findings of the research we are not only emphasizing the success of European collaboration, we are also increasing the impact of these results and help tackle a public health problem such as AMR or the COVID-19 pandemic”.
“As a public-private partnership we have the obligation to report on our clinical trials’ progress and disseminate the science issued from COMBACTE. But this science can’t be realized without the great dedicated efforts of our colleagues. So we find it important to also showcase their story and celebrate their hard work”.
GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS
The COMBACTE communications team makes sure that the academic and EFPIA partners submit regular trial updates which can be published on the COMBACTE website, newsletter and social media channels. “Our partners are informed that they need to follow the required project communication guidelines. We have policies in place which we regularly circulate to remind our project leads about them. We do still check that all communication material adheres to the guidelines” Adelina says.
“Ideally, study teams and study leads would submit their updates and progress on a regular basis. However, understandably, their time is very limited. This is where the communication team comes in and supports the study leads with providing updates”.
Adelina finds “it is a steep learning curve. But it’s great to create a network of contacts and work with both academic and pharma professionals in our project”.
THE IMPACT OF COVID-19
“As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many clinical trials and networks started research on SARS-CoV-2. This picked up fast, and our communications team needed to move quick and start communicating about these initiatives. This next to the rest of our regular project communication activities” says Adelina. “But it is of the utmost importance to disseminate the new COVID-19 initiatives and results. Working together, sharing knowledge and sharing experiences became more important than ever during this pandemic”.
Related updates
“We Take Bigger Steps Together”
COMBACTE's Last General Assembly
COMBACTE Launches Last Magazine
COMBACTE launched its last magazine at ECCMID 2023 in Copenhagen. The magazine focuses on project’s impact, and features articles and interviews with ...