Asako OKAMURA, NISTEP, Japan
With increasing concerns over science and society relationships, this paper shows how Japanese research institutes are communicating to and engaging with the public. As MORE-PE is the first nation-wide empirical investigation of this kind in Japan, the first objective of this talk is to unveil the structure of science communication (SC) and public engagement (PE) activities from a bird’s eye view, by observing multiple indicators derived from the surveys. The second objective is to detangle complex interactions among different elements which may affect the level of SC/PE activities. Such elements range from scientific fields, size of institutions, to subjective ones including factors of motivation and awareness among research institutions. The third objective is to understand how policies and other institutional factors contribute to the level of SC/PE activities by research institutions. The discussion will focus on whether Japanese research institutes have gone beyond just disseminating scientific information to engaging with the public.