The period in which we are living demonstrates how important it is to disseminate high-quality, reliable and accessible scientific information to citizens. There are two ways in which this dissemination has become indispensable.
First of all, it is a bulwark against the false information that flourishes on the Internet and is perpetuated by algorithms, causing citizens to buy into certainties that are difficult to deconstruct. Secondly, we are living in a period of major societal transformations that are impacting citizens and will impact young people’s futures. These include digital technology, health, the energy and industrial transitions – subjects to which the Grand Est Region is particularly committed – and it is important that all citizens can access reliable scientific information and that they understand the challenges and impacts of these transformations.
All these developments are the result of scientific and technical progress and scientific mediation’s role is to provide the inhabitants of the Grand Est with the time to question these developments, examine them and prepare for them.
To ensure that all citizens may assimilate these challenges, the Grand Est Region is relying on a set of institutions spread across the territory whose skills and relationships with the world of research and innovation enable them to provide rigorous information which is adapted to its target audiences. This territorial network, associated with high expectations in terms of skills, are two key elements in the Region’s science culture policy.
A third key element in this regional policy aims to develop the sharing of experience and information between these scientific mediation institutions. By introducing information-sharing tools and supporting the training of mediators, the Region wishes to encourage exchanges between institutions that are sometimes hundreds of kilometres apart, to allow them to work together and provide the citizens within their territories with high-quality information both in form and in content.
As a result of all these commitments, the Region is fully involved in the Science&You event in which exchanges and the sharing of experiences will nurture scientific mediation’s actors and make ever greater contributions to calm scientific and technical debates between the territory’s inhabitants and with the world of research, innovation and the economy.
©ChristineLedroitPerrin (photo Jean Rottner)