As interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and convergent science collaborations become more common when addressing big ideas in Arctic research, scientists require the tools and skills to effectively communicate about their work with various audiences and collaborate across disciplinary boundaries. Through this program, the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) seeks to:

• train early career scientists (ECS) with the communication skills needed to engage with various audiences, from non-scientists to researchers from other disciplines, and to collaborate with researchers from fields and sectors other than their own,
• engage them in the research policy process,
• facilitate connection with Federal program managers and senior researchers, and
• give an opportunity to present their work without the expense of traveling to a conference.

IARPC seeks eight ECS to enroll in this, the second cohort of this program. The ECSs will identify a collaboration team of interest, participate in and contribute to IARPC Collaboration’s work, and produce a “lightning talk” about their own research to be delivered as part of the IARPC Public Webinar Series and at a collaboration team meeting. Examples from the previous cohort may be viewed here.

Course Material
The science communication training program will be conducted completely live and online via Zoom webinar software (6 sessions at 2 hours each, 12 hours total over a period of 6 weeks). Students must participate in all course sessions using a webcam and strong internet connection. Please see the commitment statement at the end of this document for more details on technical requirements. 

1. Introduction to IARPC and the program: Monday, February 18, 1 PM – 3 PM Eastern Time
2. Improv, storytelling, the elevator pitch: Monday, February 25, 1 PM – 3 PM Eastern Time
3. Considering different audiences, storyboarding: Monday, March 4, 1 PM – 3 PM Eastern Time
4. Distilling your message, analogies: Monday, March 11, 1 PM – 3 PM Eastern Time
5. Slide design and data visualization: Monday, March 18, 1 PM – 3 PM Eastern Time
6. Lightning talk practice: Monday, March 25, 1 PM – 3 PM Eastern Time
7. Public Webinar (Dates TBD based on availability of trainees, but will be sometime in April or May)
8. Collaboration Team Presentation (Dates TBD based on availability of trainees and Collaboration Team presentation schedule)

Program Deliverables
ECSs will deliver their lightning talks, a product of the training program, to a collaboration team and during a public webinar as part of the IARPC Public Webinar Series, during April or May of 2019 (exact date TBA and will depend on trainee availability). Delivery will be recorded and video available for the fellows to learn from and share.

Program Commitment
IARPC can only select a few applicants, and there are many potential students who, though qualified, will not have the opportunity to participate. It’s important that all accepted students understand the privilege of this opportunity and commit to fulfilling all parts of the course as outlined in the program commitment statement at the end of this document.   

About the Instructor
Jessica Rohde is the Web Manager / Communications Officer at IARPC and is passionate about helping scientists form more effective collaborations by providing science communication training and catalyzing connections across the IARPC Collaborations community. She has been teaching science communication and public speaking for early career scientists since 2012 for organizations including the University of Washington, the Polar Prediction School, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, and now with IARPC. She recently published a paper assessing the effectiveness of the students to employ effective communication techniques before and after taking a course that this course is based on.