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Explanation of the phenomenon of underground cavities during the Fête de la Science with Fred Courant from L'Esprit Sorcier. © BRGM - P. Vassal
Catégorie de la page
Scientific with and for society
BRGM outreach to society
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As an extension of its research and expertise missions, BRGM is increasingly developing science that is open to society. Science allows us to consider choices according to the knowledge available and the research in progress. In clarifying issues it enables a healthy democratic debate.
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Media coverage and communication of science has become a major challenge for an institution like BRGM, which has taken a stand on societal issues such as the ecological transition and climate change.
BRGM's science must be as open as possible and accessible to different types of public. The scientific mediation policy pursues a communication objective aimed both at the general public and also at school children. All these initiatives and many others allow us to reach more than 800,000 people each year.
Each year, many popular articles are written by the institution’s scientists on topical issues and posted on theconversation.com for a wider audience. The journal Geosciences is published twice a year and provides an informed but non-specialist audience with insight into the issues surrounding the ground and subsurface.
Our new website also offers a dedicated and constantly evolving feature entitled: “Understanding Earth Sciences” to answer questions from the general public, with clear explanations and the various resources available (videos, podcasts, animations, computer graphics, etc.).
For school audiences, we are developing the BRGM space on the national Éduthèque website, offering new content for teachers and students. We also regularly welcome school children and support the annual Geoscience Olympics. This process of opening up science to society has two main objectives:
- to give young people a taste for and interest in science and to encourage scientific callings;
- to offer adults the opportunity to decipher the major issues in the geosciences and thus establish a relationship of trust.
Our ambition is to open new spaces for exchange and to develop interactions. We believe that scientific mediation should range from the sharing of a common scientific culture to the support of researchers in public decision making through the different levels of participatory science or open science.
