Email: ilaina@senseaboutscience.org

Telephone: +353834509758

Daily work pattern: 9am to 5pm, with some occasional evening events

Total hours per week: 35

FT/PT: Full time

Sense about Science’s Dublin office is providing an exciting opportunity for a volunteer intern who has a keen interest in science communication. The successful candidate’s role as intern would involve organising events, building of the Voice of Young Science (VoYS) network and communicating with scientists, citizens, the media and civil society organisations.

Sense about Science’s Dublin office focuses on building the VoYS network in Europe, and working with research groups through public engagement partnerships. Voice of Young Science is the growing network of dynamic early career researchers who are trained, motivated and committed to communicating about research. VoYS was started by Sense about Science in the UK and has grown into a supportive international network. Members meet at our Standing up for Science workshops where they are trained in engaging with policy makers and the media, challenging misrepresentation of research and, ultimately, standing up for science in public life.

Sense about Science is a small team working with thousands of supporters, from world leading researchers to community groups. It is a diverse band of people who share the goal of better representation of evidence in public life, and it is growing.

Our primary areas of focus are:

• Promoting the scientific method.
• Tackling systematic misrepresentation of science and evidence.
• Championing the use of evidence for better, more accountable policies.
• Talking about difficult issues.

What we do

• We challenge the misrepresentation of science and evidence in public life and intervene when necessary, in partnership with others, to hold those responsible to account.
• We encourage the public to ask for evidence, offering insight into how to analyse evidence and ask the right questions. And we encourage researchers and decision makers to talk about evidence, particularly when it is controversial or difficult.
• We press for openness and honest reporting and challenge intimidation.

• University degree.
• Some years of research experience.
• Fluent in English.
• Strong interest in public engagement.
• Candidates should be familiar with and share the Voice of Young Science (VoYS) ethos of taking responsibility in discussions about evidence in public life.

Tasks:

• Assistance in organising a Standing up for Science workshops.
• Assistance in public engagement partnerships – involving patients and the public in co-creation workshops, assisting in organising events.
• Content creation – assisting in producing social media posts and Voice of Young Science newsletters.
• Represent Sense about Science EU at networking events.
• General support of the EU office: contact management, communication, monitoring of evidence use in EU affairs.