Communicating meaningful science to lay audiences: popularising science in scientific documentaries and how to talk with investors UT Science Communication Club Thursday 17 September 2026

Name: Communicating meaningful science to lay audiences: popularising science in scientific documentaries and how to talk with investors
Start: 2026-09-17T12:30:00+02:00
End: 2026-09-17T12:30:00+02:00
Location: Langezijds - LA 2409

Thursday 17 September 2026 12:30

Nowadays as researchers we are increasingly expected to communicate our science to a wider audience, to engage in dialogue with citizens and other actors, or pitch our research for funding to a non-specialist audience. Science communication is an integral part of our responsibility to society. As with any skill, practice makes perfect—and progress is faster when we share our experiences. This is what we do at the Science Communication Club!

The next Science Communication Club will take place on Thursday 17 September 2026 (12:30 – 13:30h) in Venue Langezijds 2409

Topics and speakers

Topic 1: Scientific documentaries: A video and audio-based science communication approach about water quality monitoring

Finn Münch is a PhD candidate at the Department of Geosciences, focusing on the satellite remote sensing-based monitoring of water quality.

Review articles and scientific posters are common established media for the communication of research. Based on my passion for music, videography and documentary movies I dabbled into video editing to widen the horizon of my project’s science communication approach. The mini-documentary welcomes everyone to dive into the water cycle, following its journey and experiencing its challenges. The target audience is water stakeholders worldwide. A variety of media was considered to engage the audience and exemplify the issue of water quality monitoring. Insights about the making of such documentaries are shared.

Topic 2: Communicating Biosensing Science to Potential Investors

Mohammad Saghafi is Postdoctoral researcher and projectmanager at the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology at the UT. He is currently involved in the European project PIXEurope as a representative of the Integrated Optical Systems (IOS) Group.

In his presentation he will discuss relationships with potential investors. Potential investors are a particular kind of lay audience. They need to understand enough about a technology to make decisions, but they may also come with strong (and sometimes incorrect) assumptions about how biosensors work and what they can realistically achieve. In his talk he will share some of his experiences communicating biosensing technologies to investors, focusing on the challenge of simplifying the science, managing expectations and uncertainty, while still building the confidence needed for investment.

PhD students can earn a certificate of 0.5 EC by attending 5 meetings and presenting / discussing an own example. Subscribe to Teams and put the dates in your agenda.

Dates in 2026: