
OVCRE: Science Brief writing training to make science more relevant to society





A Training-Workshop on Scientific Brief Writing was conducted by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension (OVCRE) last March 16, 2023 with Ms. Jessica Dator-Bercilla as the resource speaker. It was participated by 20 faculty-researchers and REPS from different institutes and colleges of the university who are conducting in-house and externally-funded research projects. This workshop aimed to equip researchers with skills to effectively translate their project’s significant findings and/or developed technologies into a science brief.
During his opening remarks, Dr. Harold M. Monteclaro, Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension said that this initiative is a response to the university’s research and public service agenda. “Our units are doing quite well in terms of research, records say that we have numerous researches conducted and publications, perhaps. But one thing we need to think and ponder on is how much we impact our stakeholders”, Dr. Monteclaro added.
Research should be popularized in a way that it can easily be understood by the stakeholders, thus creating science briefs.
A backgrounder on what science briefs are were discussed by the resource speaker, Ms. Jessica Dator-Bercilla. She emphasized the need to take into account the beneficiaries of creating science briefs; that science briefs are scientific explanations of a phenomenon however it should be easy to read and understood by non-scientists.
After which, the participants were grouped and tasked to create their own science briefs and these were individually presented to other participants and to the resource speaker for review.
One of the participants, Ms. Gency Gurheim, University Research Associate I (URA I) of the College of Fisheries, Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanology (CFOS-IMFO) said that it is quite a challenge to translate research findings into science briefs. She said, “Making science briefs makes you really think about the purpose and importance of your research”.
With this initiative, the OVCRE hopes to effectively disseminate research findings to relevant stakeholders as well as to the broader communities.