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2.2 - Spread of Excellence Meeting
2.2 CINEFOGO Spread of Excellence Meeting, 24 - 25 May 2006, Vienna (Austria)
Marta Nachtmannová, Charles University in Prague (the Czech Republic)
The meeting
On 24-25 May, the first CINEFOGO Spread of Excellence (SoE) meeting took place in Vienna. The meeting was prepared by the Center for Social and Economic Strategies (CESES) at Charles University in Prague, headed by professor, Dr. Martin Potůček, who is coordinator of all spread of excellence activities in the CINEFOGO Network. The CESES group has formed a secretariat, coordinating this field of activities.
Participants
Around twenty work package responsibles, representatives and guests attended the meeting and had a thorough discussion of tasks and problems related to the various SoE activities at different levels. It was agreed that there is a general need for better understanding and a common definition of the "public space" in which the CINEFOGO Network and its members are operating.
Spread of Excellence
The SoE activities include communication of CINEFOGO research outcomes and activities to internal as well as external stakeholders. Thus SoE activities shall focus on relevant actors by using appropriate public spaces, levels, channels and forms of communication. Various spreading dimensions were identified, different tools and forms of communication were examined - and examples of relevant mass media and alternative media forms were considered.
Need for a strong link to work packages
The thematic scope of each individual work package (WP) is an important factor in spreading activities, especially while communicating outside CINEFOGO Network. Against this background, the CESES group invited all CINEFOGO partners for a closer cooperation on SoE activities. Further the group underlined the need to obtaining the support from all participants in the SoE meeting in facilitating contacts to stakeholders in their respective WP domains, as well as their active contribution in establishing partnership between CINEFOGO participants involved in their respective WPs, and thematic partners and networks outside CINEFOGO. Finally, the CESES group urged the participants to appoint a WP contact person who should be responsible as an intermediary between the WP team and the SoE secretariat.
Integrated research and spread of excellence
The secretariat stated, that the next months would be devoted to building up a structural platform for co-operation between CINEFOGO as a research network and CINEFOGO as a SoE network by further developing and implementing an organizational structure for the CINEFOGO spread of excellence programme, aiming at maximizing synergy between the Programme for Integrated Research Activities (PIRA) and the SoE activities, and broadening the spectrum of involved European Networks and SoE partners.
TRANSAACT courses
It was agreed that TRANSAACT learning courses for CINEFOGO Network members should be prepared in order to facilitating to share, elaborate and spread good SoE practices, i.e. "how CINEFOGO deliverables can be spread in an appropriate way". The purpose of these courses would be to enhance the capacity of CINEFOGO academicians to deal with different stakeholders, such as media, public administrations, policy makers, NGOs, scholars with other background than that of social scientists (broadly understood), etc. Toolkits and teaching materials will be prepared in the following months and two TRANSAACT courses are planned to take place in 2007 and 2008. The SoE secretariat urged the participants to express their ideas and suggestions to the outlined TRANSAACT courses, and to give a feedback in terms of an 'Expression ofinterest' (cf. box below).
These courses are being planned in response to the Spread of Excellence (SoE) meeting held in Vienna on 24-25 May 2006.
SoE means also Learning & Dialogue part of the CINEFOGO Network. It is designed to link academic work to the dissemination of its results to people and institutions outside academia. CINEFOGO external communication involves stakeholders at different levels (regional, national, European, global) from different background (political institutions, public sector organizations, civic sector organizations, commercial sector, scientific communities, media), therefore it should use a variety of tools to reach the addressees in an optimal way.
TRANSAACT principles were recalled during the SoE meeting (cf. separate box). The debate showed that it is not obvious for all participants to communicate outside academia. Learning courses could help to overcome the barrier between scientific knowledge and wider public. TRANSAACT learning courses for CINEFOGO network members could be prepared to share, elaborate and spread good practices how to strengthen an appropriate spread and use of CINEFOGO deliverables. Toolkits and teaching materials could be elaborated.
You are kindly asked to respond the below stated questions. Please send your responses to Marta Nachtmannová, nacht@fsv.cuni.cz until 15 February 2007.
1. Do you envisage any interest in such courses?
2. If so, what kind of knowledge and skills would you expect to acquire and/or develop through TRANSAACT courses?
3. Name, contact:
T: Transparency - making all research outcomes generally accessible
R: Readability - making all research outcomes understandable and user-friendly
A: Accountability - presenting all research outcomes adequately and accurately
N: Networking - promoting horizontal exchange of information and skills
S: Sharing - supporting dialogue, dissemination and exchange of best practices
A: Autonomy - relying on autonomy, motivation and initiative of all involved actors
ACT: Activation - attracting attention of indifferent but potentially engageable actors
The European programme in Civil Society Leadership