This interdisciplinary session will discuss the case of agricultural extension services. These services were created specifically to bridge science and society for farm production and environmental issues. They are linked to universities in many countries and lie in a long tradition of “popularisation” of scholarship from various disciplines, especially biotechnical sciences such as agronomy, animal husbandry, as well as other natural and social sciences. Extensive surveys and reviews show that several types of “bridges” are necessary to fully consider the time frame of action (design, implementation, assessment) and to contextualize the scientific knowledge in specific situations. In particular, they stress that the different groups of actors concerned with these situations (policy makers, farmers, researchers, etc.) have unequal capacities to access and use scientific knowledge, but that all of them need a clear picture on scientific production, and on the actual limits of the validity of the research outcomes. But the results of such research remain fragmented. Our goal is to put these reflections in a global and interdisciplinary perspective in order to discuss the types of meta-knowledge (models, levels of proofs, types of evidence, boundary objects, etc) that various stakeholders need in three different situations: management of innovation, implementation of new practices, and assessment of services.

The participants in this panel wish to explore the various implications of the scientific communication in the education and training of the young researchers and even in the development of the research itself.

The need for communication with the media and, through them with the public, is now accepted or, at least, undergone with philosophy. However, the exercise appears difficult and requires reflexion and training. (Steve Miller)

To communicate between peers, on the other hand, is considered like part of the research activity and, thus, essential. Nevertheless, looking more closely, the exercise is not simpler. "Publish or perish" is now a concept which penetrated the world of the researchers. However, if a reflexion on "what" and "how" to publish is quite in hand, it did not yet penetrate enough in the community of the researchers. (M-C Roland)

In addition, the research teams are increasingly multidisciplinary. The dialogue between scientists from different scientic fields is difficult and can block the efficency of work of the team. So, the need for developing communication skills is more and more ntegrated in the training of the young researchers. At the Université libre de Bruxelles, these new competences are integrated to the basic education of the students of the Faculty of Science, at the the BA and MA level. (Michel Claessens and MJ Gama)

This session will look at how the EU is tackling one of the current challenges facing science education today: to increase students’ scientific literacy as well as promote scientific interest, thereby helping to counteract the drastically dropping numbers of young people taking up scientific careers. The results of the 2006 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) heightened the debate surrounding science education across Europe. The results showed that students who enjoyed learning science were more likely to perform better and that, although the majority were motivated to learn science, only a small number took a “close interest” – an indication that a high level of scientific proficiency, together with a high level of scientific interest is required for continuing the next generation of scientists.

Using the PISA results as a starting point, this session will explore and discuss how science literacy and scientific interest can be raised. Good practice examples from Germany, UK and Norway will be presented from different perspectives – the scientist, the teacher, the psychologist. We will demonstrate successful and new ways in which science is not just being taught, but also communicated, in order to encourage more young people to take a greater interest in these subjects.

According to the WHO 2008 Global status report on safety, about half of the estimated 1.27 million people that die each year in road traffic accidents around the world are pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. It’s a staggering number. On the other hand, at a time when resources become increasingly more limited, the motorcycles show several economical and ecological advantages against their direct competitor, the car: less fuel (more than 50km/l), less expensive to buy and maintain, easy to move and easy to park. Is there a way we can improve the negative safety record of motorcycles and other over-exposed groups?

In this session, we will be present what has been done in this areas with EU support, thanks to projects such as MYMOSA, PISA, SIM (Safety In Motion), APROSYS, APSN, 2-BE-SAFE, eSUM, SAFERIDER and others. After a brief presentation of the projects, four experts from several areas – namely one politician, one expert in road safety, one representative of motorcyclist association and one scientist – will discuss the issue and engage the audience in a debate on pros and cons of motorcycles.

International experts in different fields of research (from social and human sciences to biomedical, engineering and physical sciences) will try to underline the central role of international and pan-European research infrastructures (RIs) in supporting the ever changing needs of Europe's scientific community. RIs act as quality benchmarking on research, technologies and training, and they offer an international service based on a peer review selection of users, who are offered the best instruments and environment. The first example are the medieval libraries-abbeys: the places where scholars met and exchanged information on the basis of the preservation and diffusion of the Roman, Greek and Arab cultures. But also the places where several technologies evolved, from chemistry to agriculture. This concept has been retrieved in the large postwar facilities like CERN, EMBL and ESO, and now is being extended to all fields of research.

But which is the key of the RIs’ success? There is a co-existence of basic research and applications, as well as training of young researchers and technicians (core of the knowledge triangle), and many RIs are attractive for public-private investments, being the source of new technologies (like Internet, CCD cameras, PCR). The action is supported by the European Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), which is developing, within the Lisbon and Lubjana agendas, the integration of the efforts of the EU countries.

The integration difficulties of persons who were born deaf or became deaf in the first years of life are higher, since they could not acquire the knowledge of the spoken language. Sign Languages allow deaf children to acquire a full cognitive development within their community, which is composed of both hearing and deaf persons. Such cognitive development represents the prerequisite to a full access to education, culture and complete inclusion in working and social environments. An increasing request for Sign Languages interpretation in educational, legal, and healthcare context is today registered, and expected to be extended soon to culture and entertainment.

The ATLAS project exploits the convergence between cognitive sciences and ICT to build innovative services to provide deaf people with the access to broadcast communications, through the automatic translation of the written Italian natural language into the animated Italian Sign Language (LIS). In particular, the tangible objective of the project is the development of a translator able to translate sentences from the Italian natural language into the corresponding sequence of signs, through an intermediate translation into a written form of the LIS. This will involve the analysis of the natural language from both linguistic and structural point of view and the generation of virtual interpreters to visualize LIS sentences.

Biomasses like the biodegradable fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and green waste are generally converted into compost. Compost is widely recognised and used in agriculture as fertilizer to improve soil fertility. Moreover, some composts were found to be suppressive against several soilborne pathogens in various cropping systems. Soilborne plant pathogens are responsible for many diseases of economically important crops that can result in severe losses. Economic losses due to soilborne pathogens are estimated at 10-20% of the attainable yield for many crops, and the monetary losses due to soilborne diseases could reach million of euros per year. An increase of some plant diseases due to compost usage has also been demonstrated, since compost is a product that varies considerably in chemical, physical and biotic composition, and, consequently, also in ability to suppress soilborne diseases. For this reason, the antagonistic activity of biological control agents, like _Trichoderma_ spp., could be used efficiently to increase the level of reproducibility of suppressiveness properties of compost.

Agroinnova developed a methodology to evaluate composts quality and in particular the suppressiveness against plant pathogens. Moreover Agroinnova selected microorganisms that are able to increase compost suppressiveness and lead to a bio-fertilizer able to control a wide range of soilborne pathogens. Results lead to the development of an innovative spin-off: AgriNewTech.