Dissemination - Efficient marketing for scientific work

Dissemination to the broad public, aiming at an audience without detailed knowledge of the research area, gained significant importance. To be successful in this respect, the content needs to be adapted to the target audience. This makes dissemination a challenge for researchers and research institutions.

The direct benefit of dissemination in broad public for the researcher is not automatically visible. Therefore, those activities are often performed with low priority. Professional communication of results to the broad public requires a different approach and motivation than publication in scientific communities. Although many research projects provide sufficient dissemination budget, only few projects are successful in dissemination.

This talk demonstrates the obstacles and roadblocks towards successful dissemination in the broad public. Based on my experience as researcher, project leader, from industry, and as evaluator for research programs, I highlight the topic from different viewpoints. Referring to real-world examples and incidents from my history I demonstrate the obstacles towards successful dissemination. Following, I provide a motivation for scientists and research institutions for professional communication of their activities in the public. Based on this motivation, I present several instruments, methods and activities to improve the visibility of research results with meaningful effort.