10
Jan

ScienceFlows: Milestones and Projects in 2024

Ana Serra// We close 2024 with a bittersweet feeling. On one hand, with great enthusiasm after a year of intense scientific, teaching, and disseminating activity, but on the other, with the sadness of the disaster experienced in Valencia after the massive flooding (DANA) that occurred on October 29, 2024, which left over 220 dead due to flooding from torrential rains. This event made us reflect on the work done, particularly in the field of misinformation and the crucial role that the media must play in natural disasters. All of this motivated us to set new challenges for 2025, with the aim of adding value to knowledge through our commitment to science and society.

The projects we worked on during 2024

One of the key milestones this year was the completion of the IBERIFIER project at the end of February. This important effort, developed in collaboration with 22 other entities (universities, fact-checkers, and other institutions), has allowed the consolidation of a Hispano-Portuguese Observatory to combat misinformation in Spain and Portugal. Coordinated by the University of Navarra, the Iberifier Observatory has generated key reports on fake news and its social impact. At ScienceFlows, we led two reports that are currently available in open access on the IBERIFIER project website:

  1. Report on political and legal aspects of disinformation in Portugal and Spain, which analyzes six critical issues related to misinformation, including legal perspectives from European to local levels.
  2. The impact of disinformation on the media industry in Spain and Portugal, which gathers the conclusions of a comprehensive survey on public trust in the media and the impact of misinformation.

Far from ending our participation in this project, since March 2024, we have started work on the new IBERIFIER PLUS project, which not only ensures the continuity of the Observatory but also strengthens fact-checking in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan, while also exploring the use of artificial intelligence for the early detection of fake news. In this project, our team leads work package five, which focuses on the evaluation and monitoring of the Code of Practice on Disinformation. We will be responsible for assessing the compliance of major digital platforms with European regulations through six periodic reports throughout the project until 2026.

Since March 2024, we have started work on the new IBERIFIER PLUS project, which not only ensures the continuity of the Observatory but also strengthens fact-checking in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan, while also exploring the use of artificial intelligence for the early detection of fake news.

Another major achievement of the team is our participation as partners in the COALESCE project, which aims to develop the European Competence Centre for Science Communication. The website scicommcentre.eu is now available to all users, offering essential resources for communicators, journalists, and scientists interested in effective and sustainable communication. Throughout 2024, we have been leading a report on various strategies to prevent science misinformation and gathering tools to help users identify false content on social media.

In addition, we closed the year with the awarding of the CONFIDES project by the State Research Agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities, which will run until 2027 and will study the evolution of public perception of vaccines, climate change, and artificial intelligence before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This project includes the incorporation of an FPI researcher to our team, who will develop their doctoral thesis as part of this research.

Science Without Borders: Stays and Visiting Researchers

Internationalization also marked 2024. Carolina Moreno, main researcher at ScienceFlows, completed a six-month stay at Cornell University (USA), where she led the SEOS (Science Education Out School) project. This study explored how science education and communication develop outside of academic settings, identifying the influence of various actors and activities on the development of careers in science, communication, and other professional fields.

Additionally, Vanessa Roger, coordinator of the educational innovation project IAcom (Artificial Intelligence in Communication) and researcher at ScienceFlows, spent the summer as a visiting researcher at Universidade da Beira Interior (Portugal) focusing on AI in higher education.

Since October, we have been hosting Ígor Waltz, a Brazilian postdoctoral researcher from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, who is collaborating on an international study on climate change perception in Spain and Brazil. Furthermore, Isabel Hinarejos, a PhD in Biomedicine, completed her curricular internship for the Expert Diploma in Public Communication, Science Outreach, and Scientific Advising at UAM, bringing a dynamic and innovative perspective to our research group.

EUROSCICOMM 2024 Conference: A Space for Dialogue

In November, we organized the EUROSCICOMM 2024 conference, sponsored by the Generalitat Valenciana. Over the course of two days, international experts reflected on science communication and analyzed various initiatives aimed at bringing science closer to audiences traditionally distant from it.

The event also addressed communication management in the face of natural disasters, such as the tragic consequences of the dana (massive floodings) on October 29, 2024. The presentations emphasized the importance of more uniform messaging and the need for specialized professionals. Among the international speakers, Clare Wilkinson discussed ethics in science communication, Annette Leßmöllmann presented new research strategies and methodologies, and Joseph Roche shared the vision of the COALESCE project in tackling challenges in rapidly changing environments. These presentations are available on our YouTube channel.

A team that is growing and stabilizing.

Among this year’s achievements, from the perspective of growth in training and stabilization, we can highlight that the FPU researcher, Paula von Polheim, completed a stay at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal), where she developed the BACADI project. Meanwhile, Yolanda Cabrera and Lorena Cano secured positions as professors in the fields of Audiovisual Communication and Journalism at the Department of Language Theory and Communication Sciences at the University of Valencia. Additionally, we congratulate Elena Denia for her appointment at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts (USA), where she has been teaching a seminar on Science, Technology, and Society, following her postdoctoral stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Boston (USA). The rest of the team continues to work on various projects.

Looking to the Future

In 2024, we achieved the objectives we set, consolidating our commitment to bringing knowledge closer to society. To do this, we utilized our blog, social media, and participated in various activities organized by the Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation at the University of Valencia. We look forward to 2025 with enthusiasm, ready to continue in this same direction of social outreach, and with the hope of integrating new people into our team and projects.