A poster with a blue background. To the right there are pink squares with black circles in the middle of them. On the right text reads "Academically Speaking communication training fro researchers. With leading expert and skills coach Malcolm Love". Below this text there are START, Trinity College, RCSI, ADAPT and British Council logos.

Academically Speaking was a programme run by British Council Ireland in partnership with Trinity College Dublin. 

The programme ran from September 2022-September 2023, offering a series of FREE communications trainings to researchers as well as 1:1 sessions with Malcolm Love to dive deeper into researchers' own areas of interest. These bespoke trainings and 1:1 sessions enhanced researchers' ability to communicate their work and other topics that mattered to them with more impact and effect.

More About the Programme

When scientists and other academics communicate their research, they are engaged in ‘telling true stories’. The skill set required overlaps with that of journalists, writers, presenters and media people of various kinds. In this series of workshops, skills coach Malcolm Love drew from those worlds for insights and practical, applicable advice. 

Inspired by the FameLab project model, the workshops were developed by science communicator expert, Malcolm Love, with the purpose of helping participants to:

  • Present with more confidence
  • Develop more powerful body language
  • Create impactful material
  • Engage effectively with the public
  • Enhance communication with the art and skill of story-tellers
  • Learn top tips from great communicators

British Council is proud to be a partner in this programme which aims to support researchers to develop their communication skills and confidence and to engage with diverse audiences across the island of Ireland. Academically Speaking is delivered as part of EU Commission Horizon 2022 projects led by Trinity College Dublin for European Researchers' Night. Other institutions involved include: Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and ADAPT. 

Malcolm and various participants from the Academically Speaking Communicating with Sceptical Audiences Workshop from September 2023.
A Zoom screen with the participants and trainers of the Scientifically Speaking workshop smiling and waving.
In 2020, we did things a little differently. We took to Zoom to deliver our workshops, this time in Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Limerick and Waterford. In fact, the training was in such high demand in 2020 we even had to hold an additional one!
Malcolm Love demonstrating a communication technique at one of his workshops. He has sheets of paper on the ground in front of him, and he is gesturing to the room around him as he speaks. Behind him there is a red Scientifically Speaking banner.
Malcolm Love demonstrating one of the exercises he advises you do in order to improve your communication skills. It involves developing an understanding of where you want your talk to go and identifying key markers, rather than relying on memorising your talk word for word. This picture was taken at our 2019 training in NUI Galway. 

Scientifically Speaking

Scientifically Speaking was developed as part of European Researchers' Night projects in 2019-2020 led by Trinity College Dublin (PROBE and START) and University College Cork (Cork Discovers). Projects were funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. In 2021 Scientifically Speaking ran as a partnership between British Council Ireland and Trinity College Dublin.

For the 2022-23 programme, British Council partnered with Trinity College Dublin once again, this time to deliver the rebranded Academically Speaking to researchers. 

About Malcolm Love

Malcolm is a freelance film-maker, radio producer, public communications trainer and coach. He has worked for the BBC as a producer (and occasional presenter) in London, Cardiff and Bristol where he became senior producer for features and documentaries. Since going freelance in 1997, Malcolm has made many more programmes for the BBC and other outlets. This experience has enabled him to work with many well-known contributors including: John Cleese, Midge Ure, Anita Roddick, Alexei Sayle, Claire Rayner, Jeremy Hardy, Ian Hislop, Amy Tan, Armistead Maupin and Isabel Allende. 

Malcolm is an Associate Lecturer for the MSc in Science Communication at the University of West of England, Bristol (UWE). He also taught science communication for 13 years at Birkbeck College, London. He was lead trainer for ‘FameLab’ and ‘FameLab International’ for twelve years and continues to run FameLab master classes and other public communications programmes all over the world.

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