Wisskomm@Charité

The Wisskomm@Charité program is about promoting new ways to impart science communication skills on an organizational level in the life sciences and university medicine in Berlin. Different aspects of the prevailing practice at the interface of science and media (intention, roles, language, choice of media, etc.) are being rethought and changes tested in this professional training program for researchers. Complementing Stiftung Charité’s project-oriented “science x media tandem program”, Wisskomm@Charité aims at implementing institution-wide changes in the science communication practice of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, including the Berlin Institute of Health @ Charité (BIH) and Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité (DHZC). 

Since 2023, Stiftung Charité is funding Charité to develop and implement this internal training program to teach current skills and new science communication practices. This responds to the increased societal and political demands placed on researchers in medical and life science fields regarding communication. Charité is thus far the only university medicine that has committed itself to building communication competencies among medical professionals and life science researchers through a fundamental training program. Charité’s Corporate Communications division is responsible for realizing the project. As an important component of its funding activities in the area of “Open Life Science”, Stiftung Charité supports the “Wisskomm@Charité” program with both ideas and seed funding.

Questions the training program addresses include: How do I communicate complex medical issues in a way that is understandable to lay people? What impact can my statements about scientific findings have in public, especially on social media? How do I reach a non-specialist audience and why is that even important?

The program extends over a period of six months and comprises approximately eleven days, which primarily take place in person. It is aimed at all researchers at Charité, regardless of career level, and is regularly advertised internally. The aim is to foster an understanding of the processes, mechanisms and content of science communication in the program’s participants, to consolidate cooperation with the Corporate Communications division responsible for science communication at Charité, and thus to further professionalize the science communication of Berlin’s university medicine.

In 2024, the first cohort of 14 participants from various disciplines and career stages completed the training. The second cohort began theirs in autumn 2024. You can read brief statements from members of the first cohort and more here: 

https://www.charite.de/en/research/scicommcharite/