A new type of activity in the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence was launched in Prague this autumn, namely a first training course, addressing various aspects of science communiction, based on the TRANSAACT principles (cf. box 1). The training was organized by Marta Nachtmannová and took place at Center for Social and Economic Strategies (CESES) at Charles University in Prague (Czechia), with about 15 attendants of which only a few had a previous association with the CINEFOGO Network. The organisers hope that future TRANSAACT training courses will attract many more CINEFOGO partners, and that the courses at the same time will invoke the interest of a broader audience outside the Network.

One important goal of CINEFOGO is to nourish public debate on governance in Europe by ‘spreading its excellence’, i.e. to disseminate the outcomes of the many research activities within the Network.This reflects the view that conference proceedings, articles in scientific journals, and monographs will target only a limited audience within the research community and some research administrators, and leave large parts of the public spheres in European countries unaffected. Against this background, the TRANSAACT training has been set up as a CINEFOGO contribution aiming at improving the general communication capacity of the Network partners and other interested scholars and science mediators. Thus TRANSAACT training should provide inspiration for internal partners as well as external scholars and science writers to actively communicate research results achieved within the Network.

The TRANSAACT course included a series of lectures on general aspects bridging between social sciences and society, i.e. dissemination of outcome of scientific research to interested parties, e.g. policy makers, national authorities, NGOs, business corporations, etc. Some issues covered by lectures were e.g. the conditions of debate in public space, selection of relevant stakeholders, how to form simple messages based on specialist reports, how to approach media, etc. - The participants encountered various forms of communication, and a broad variety of policy documents. Finally, participants were confronted with practical communication tasks in situations, where they had to act under very strict time limits. – According to an ex post evaluation, the participants expressed general satisfation with their outcome of the TRANSAACT pilot training.

Two more TRANSAACT training courses will be arranged. One at Roskilde University during 2008 and another in Prague at Charles University in 2009. More information will be announced later.