Empowering an integrated community of science communicators

Over the last 10 years, the amount of scientific content and science related news has steadily increased in Ghana. Nonetheless, A recent publication by Kwasi Debrah (named expert on this project) describes the relationship between scientists and journalists as far from ideal. There are multiple reasons for this, with room for improvement on the side of either party. Nonetheless, the need for trusted scientific coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic presents a great opportunity. A chance to create an integrated community of scientists, journalists and science communicators working to ensure that the public stays informed with accurate and accessible science news during this pandemic and beyond. The proposed project has been designed to achieve just that, building on the institutional experience of GH.Scientific to deliver a multifaceted approach. The first approach will focus on building capacity of journalists. The founders' of GH.Scinetific have over 20 years combined experience in science communication. With this experience comes evidence-based lessons on the best practices for science communication. This experience, combined with 6 years of GH.Scienitifc work in the field of science communication will be leveraged to create a training manual for journalists to build their own capacity within the field. The manual will be made available freely online, nonetheless, three training sessions will be organised to deliver the content. The first will focus on journalists and media houses within the capital region, the second will target online media platforms and the third will target media training institutes. Completion of this training program will lead to an invitation to join a newly created online platform for science communicators. The grant will support this project by paying for the creation of the online platform, additional video recording equipment, creation of the science communication training materials, video content production and translation. The training materials, network of scientists, journalists and science communicators as well as created video content, will ensure that this project has an enduring legacy far beyond COVID-19. Expected Outputs  Create accurate and effective communication materials around COVID-19 for public consumption.  Create a repertoire of synthesised and accurate information surrounding COVID-19.  Contribute towards educating the population and creating a more scientific literate country.