African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) has partnered with The Conversation Africa (TC-Africa) to offer immersive Science Communication training that will equip participants with the skills to write for popular media.

The training, targeting AWARD Fellows, Fellows’ Mentees, and female One Planet Laureate Candidates, will enhance the researchers’ capacities to synthesise their research findings for non-technical audiences. The training will strengthen participants’ ability to inform and create transformative narratives on the role of research and development.

The partnership between AWARD and TC-Africa will see both organisations advance their capacity-building agenda for African researchers and unlock scientific innovation’s potential for agriculture-driven inclusive growth and prosperity.

One of AWARD’s priorities is to have capable, confident, and influential women scientists lead critical advances and innovations in agricultural research for development. AWARD further shares TC-Africa’s vision and strongly supports its mission of mainstreaming the voices of African scientists in the general news media, supporting them to engage and communicate better.

For the scientists to effectively deliver their innovations to the intended end users, they must be equipped to package their science appropriately. The training will support the scientists to package and address their innovations while creating opportunities to help advance their careers by publishing on public media platforms.

At the end of the training, the participants will walk away with;

• Immediately applicable practical skills and strategies for writing for popular media.
• Frameworks to enable them to synthesise their research for widespread uptake.
• A certificate of competence from TC-Africa and AWARD

What does the training entail?

The one-month-long virtual training will include two components designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the processes for effective non-technical writing.

• Component 1 – “Writing for popular media. This is a self-paced online training that participants can complete on their own. The course comprises three (3) modules that take up to one hour each.
• Component 2 – Zoom/Virtual session facilitated by TC-Africa trainers. This session will be conducted upon completion of component 1. The course will allow participants to sharpen their articles and publish with TC-Africa.

About The Conversation Africa (TC-Africa)

 TC-Africa is a not-for-profit media platform which connects universities and the research sector in Africa to the broader public. Since launching in May 2015, TC-Africa has published more than 8 000 articles from academics, researchers, and scientists whose news articles have reached more than 130 million reads globally. TC-Africa’s mission is to mainstream the voices of scientists and researchers in the general news media and to support science engagement and science communication activities of scientists in Africa. Their key objective is to make the knowledge produced in the academy accessible, easy to understand, and freely available for the public to be informed and use. TC-Africa publishes under a Creative Commons License, meaning that all articles can be republished by other media freely, ensuring a wider global reach. 

About AWARD

African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) works toward inclusive, agriculture-driven prosperity for Africa by strengthening the production and dissemination of more gender-responsive agricultural research and innovation. We invest in African scientists, research institutions, and agribusinesses so that they can deliver agricultural innovations that better respond to the needs and priorities of a diversity of women and men across Africa’s agricultural value chains.