Communication | Outreach
Academic Outreach: an introduction to sharing your research via social and traditional media
You feel that your research deserves a larger audience than a small circle of peers. But, where to start? During this course you explore the topic of outreach. You will learn how to approach social and traditional media strategically and practice with sharing your research in a way that resonates with your audience.
- Target group
- PhD candidate
- Teachers
- Hermen Visser, Marten van der Meulen, Elena Milani and Bouwe van Straten
- Method
-
Training course
- Workload
- The workload for this course amounts to 8 hours (6 hours of training and 2 hours of homework)
- Start dates 2025
- 11 June, 3 September, 26 September, 5 November, 14 November
- Language
- English
Why this course?
During this course, you will discover how outreach not only helps to increase your societal impact, but that it also allows you to develop your communication skills, grow your visibility to relevant audiences, and can be a lot of fun. You will learn how to look at your own research from an outside perspective, formulate compelling messages, and discover how you can use different media to spread the word about your research.
After completing this workshop, you will be able to:
- Explain why you should engage the public with your research.
- Identify the most engaging part of your research.
- Identify the optimal medium for your message.
- Employ different types of media (without it taking up too much time).
- Composing messages that resonate with your audience.
This workshop helps you to orient on and briefly practise with (non-academic) media. Are you looking for a more in-depth training about blogging? Take a look at Blogging about your research.
Format
This course is taught by a researcher with outreach experience and a science journalist. Based on their professional expertise they teach you how to bridge the gap between academia and the broader public.
The online course presents an engaging experience by iterating between short presentations, cases, group discussions, breakout sessions, exercises, and expert feedback. Do you want to dig deeper into a specific topic? The optional one-on-one session allows for tailored expert advice.
The following topics will be addressed:
- The why of media (social and traditional)
- Media strategy
- Media: what and how?
- Selling your research
- How to proceed
Practicle information
- You can register for this course using the registration buttons on the right side of this page. Please note the difference between Staff (employee of Leiden University) and Extern/LUmc (e.g. extern, self-funded researchers or employee at LUmc).
- The course is free of charge for employee- and contract PhD candidates.