“What do you do for work?”

This question comes up often when meeting someone new. Most people have probably paused to consider how to explain clearly and concisely what they do to the person they are speaking with.

University of Iowa researchers and scholars are well-versed in communicating about their work through various academic mediums. This includes talks, grant proposals, papers, and manuscripts. These skills are required in order to secure funding, form collaborations, and climb the academic ladder.

Scholars develop these skills in graduate school and hone them over the course of a career. But until the last decade or so, academics have had received limited instruction on how to communicate about their area of specialization with people outside of academia.

 “It’s critically important, perhaps now more than ever before, that academic institutions reach out to broad audiences to build support for research and creative discovery, and to promote understanding of the ways that this work reaps benefits for society as a whole,” said Marty Scholtz, vice president for research.

To support these efforts, the Office of the Vice President for Research launched its Communicating Ideas program in 2012. This small-group, interdisciplinary workshop is designed to offer tips and techniques for communicating about science and scholarship to general audiences, including the media.

“Effective engagement with the public also has significant benefits for a scholar’s career. By raising their own national profile, scholars can attract new collaborations, boost citations of their publications, and increase speaking opportunities,” said Scholtz. “By building new foundational skills to make our work accessible to broad audiences, which often involves cutting out jargon, we can also view our traditional forms of scholarly communication through a fresh lens."