Forskar Grand Prix is the biggest national competition in presentation technique where researcher present their research in a comprehensible, inspiring, and interesting way in only 4 minutes. The winner is appointed by the audience and three judges.
At the partial competition in Helsingborg, where researchers from Lund University competed for a place at the national finals, Sara Ullström presented her research within the research project The Takeoff of Staying on the Ground – which studies the emerging social movement to reduce flying in Sweden and the changing cultural and social norms that it represents.
- It is very important for me to reach out with my research to the general public. It makes it more meaningful, as I want to make an impact with my research.
The audience were senior high school students from Helsingborg, which Sara found both fun and challenging.
- It is about creating curiosity, to show what it is like to be a researcher, and hopefully inspire them. But it can be quite challenging since you have to use a different language than when talking about your research to other researchers, for instance at conferences or in lectures.
Nonetheless, she thinks it is important that researchers learn how to communicate their research in a popular science way, to make it more comprehensible for people outside academia.
Even though Sara didn’t make it to the finals in Stockholm, she still enjoyed the experience and was happy with the feedback from the jury.
- It has been fun, and I’ve learnt a lot, both in terms of presentation technique and how to reach a general public with a message. During this process we have been coached by communication experts and been given feedback from the group and from the jury, so it has been very educational and rewarding.
Sara’s tips on 3 questions to ask yourself when presenting your research:
- Who is the target group/the audience?
- What is your main message?
- What do you want the audience to take away from the presentation?
Read more about Sara Ullström’s research on LUCSUS website: www.lucsus.lu.se/sara-ullstrom
