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As a PhD-candidate, you are expected to communicate your research. There are different ways to do this, for instance publishing, participating in conferences and disseminating to the general public. All dissemination of research should be registered in Cristin, both scientific publications and public and user-oriented outreach.

Conference participation

You should go over which conferences are relevant for you together with your supervisors and decide where you should participate. You can participate either with or without a presentation. At first, you may participate without a presentation to get a general idea of the procedure, but you should definitely participate at some conferences with your own paper and/or poster presentations.

Participating in conferences can be a great way to network and present your research. By presenting your research, you can also get useful input to use going forward. Make sure that you always promote your affiliation to NTNU.

Dissemination to the public

There are many ways of disseminating your research to the general public: Interviews, writing articles and reports, lectures etc. How easy it is to get your research out there may vary depending on the research project, how you present it, and what the media and the public are interested in. Sometimes journalists may get in touch to get a statement. They will usually do this by going through their own networks or NTNU’s media contacts. NTNU also has its own list of experts for journalists to find qualified staff who are willing to answer questions and make comments within different fields. The list consists of both permanent academic staff and PhD-candidates.

If you have a topic that you wish to communicate, either because you have research-based knowledge on a topic of debate or because you have interesting findings that you believe would be of interest to the public, it might be difficult to know how to proceed. All faculties have media contacts who can help you in this process. NTNU’s Communication Division can also be helpful with these matters.

There are some regular arenas that can be good starting places for communicating your research.

• Forskningsdagene (Norwegian web page) take place every year and have a lot of activities that are suitable for PhD-candidates, such as Researcher Grand Prix, Researchers’ Night and Researcher for Lunch
• Gemini is NTNU’s own web-based journal for research and innovation at NTNU and Sintef. Gemini can be a good starting point if you wish to communicate your research. Other media outlets pick up a large number of their articles.
• The university library is open for all researchers who wish to communicate their research to employees and students through lunch talks, seminars, book presentations, exhibitions etc.

Course in Communicating Science

The course HFEL8000 - Communicating Science in Journals and to the General Public is offered at regular intervals and is open to all PhD-candidates at NTNU. The course is taught concentrated with two two-day seminars and completion is awarded with three ECTS.  You must contact your faculty/department in advance if you wish to include the course in the coursework component of your PhD-studies; it is up to the individual faculties whether the course may be included. The course can be quite useful regardless, particularly for candidates with an interest in communicating science.