The first Australian national audit of science engagement activities recorded information about 411 different activities that aim to engage ordinary people with science between January 2011 and June 2013.
We’ve turned the results into an interactive visual national online database so that you can explore key aspects of the survey answers.
It’s a picture as big as Australia.
A beam of light illuminating how people are getting science out to the community.
View the map to find out more about science engagement activities in Australia.
View the bubbles visualisation to find out more about science engagement activities in Australia.
You can use the interactive visual database to find:
- who Australia’s ‘players’ in science engagement are – internationally, nationally, regionally and locally
- where and who is missing out on science engagement
- how people link their activities or ideas together
- how people are evaluating their engagement activities, or not
- what patterns exist within the bigger picture of science engagement in Australia – with lots of opportunity for research
We are also developing a fully searchable database for more in-depth online analysis. It will help you to:
- find potential partners for funding and delivering activities
- see if and how Australians respond to science engagement activities
- create better evaluation tools
About the audit
The audit was funded by the federal government’s Inspiring Australia program and is part of a suite of projects tackling the Inspiring Australia Expert Working Group recommendations in the report Developing an evidence base for science engagement.
It aimed to gain a national picture of science engagement activities so that people involved in science communication can access research trends, discover new ideas, look for complementary projects and avoid duplication of activities.
Contributors responded to an online survey, which was open from July to September 2012.
They included people from universities, science centres, museums, zoos, CSIRO, businesses and private individuals.
The data will help develop a national evaluation tool for science engagement activities—another initiative in response to the report’s recommendations.
The audit will help science communicators to be seen as part of the big picture of science engagement in Australia and their standing with respect to the world.
The national audit team comprises Jenni Metcalfe (Econnect Communication), Kristin Alford (Bridge8), and Jesse Shore and Kali Madden (Australian Science Communicators). Nancy Longnecker (UWA), Rod Lamberts (ANU) and Joan Leach (UQ) are advisors to the project.
Download the National audit final report [PDF 5.4Mb].
Using the visualisations
View the results:
Get help using the visualisations.
You can also click on the “How to use?” link on the top right of each visualisation or view the full bubbles help and map help.
Editing your data
If you contributed to the survey and you wish to edit your project data as it appears on the map visualisation, please email office [at] asc.asn.au describing your desired changes.