The bridges of

Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz

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Partekatu

Bridging the gap between scientists and society is one of the main goals of Elhuyar magazine. To this end, we have direct contact with several researchers, who we turn to not only to inform them of the research carried out by them, but also to obtain their opinion on the research carried out by other scientists.

In any case, it is clear that this is not enough. Since bridges connect two edges, it is also up to us to do work in the other direction: from society to science. This forces us to constantly seek out what concerns and needs exist in society and what science can and must do to respond to them. Examples include health, energy, climate, biodiversity, equity, etc. In all these issues, it is not a question of how to bring science closer to society, but how to design future strategies together. And, apparently, people don’t believe that scientists sufficiently take into account the concerns and needs of society.

In fact, this opinion has been revealed in the latest survey of perception about science and technology by the FECYT (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology). The FECYT conducts this questionnaire every two years, in which only 37.2% of the participants believe that the researchers are sufficiently socially aware and only 36.3% believe that they adequately communicate the results of the work. What’s more, just over half of them believe that the results of scientists can depend on who pays them.

It is therefore clear that we have a role to play in improving communication with transparency and honesty. One of the principles is not to conceal the shortcomings of researchers and the scientific system. In fact, they have shown that people trust scientists who recognize mistakes or negative results more than they always seem successful.

For us, credibility and trust are fundamental values. We built a bridge over it. And to continue consolidating this bridge, we want to offer you innovations with more scientific-technological content in more formats. You will find out soon!