From the University of Granada and MediaLab UGR, in partnership with the Erasmus Plus project EngageGreen and the Citizen Science Programme Impronta Granada funded by FECYT, the conference “Science & Society: the French research policy” was held by Florence Belaën. This relevant event took place last Wednesday, April 24th from 9 AM to 11 AM and it was followed online and in-person.
The conference was held by Florence Belaën from the Université Lumière Lyon 2. She is a distinguished professional in the field of science, culture and society. The session focused on the link between science and society, taking the research policy in France as a reference and specially focusing on how these policies are fostering an effective inclusion of science and society’s needs and expectations. This matter is of particular relevance now that the trust in academic knowledge faces significant challenges and the necessity of a fruitful dialogue between science and society has never been so critical.
It was a great opportunity to know more about her work in academia. She emphasised that they carry out different actions, such as supporting the researcher in the promotion of their work; making links with specific partners: museums, libraries, media, etc; giving them the opportunity to reach a larger audience: schools, CSO, etc.; and sharing with them the competencies in managing projects with different stakeholders.
She also highlighted that the combination of science policies and society is not something new because “since the 1980s there has been the idea of filling a lack of culture and knowledge in the population”. In order to bridge this gap, the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris was created, and the Science Festival is also held every year.
Profile of Florence Belaën
After studying theoretical physics, Florence Belaën was awarded a PhD in Information and Communication Sciences in 2002, focusing on science museums and immersive exhibitions. She worked for ten years at the large Parisian museum, the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, as a mediation technical staff and later as a programming technical staff. From 2008 to 2013, she led the National Observatory of Scientific and Technical Heritage and Culture at the request of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research of France. Between 2014 and 2021, she held the position of Head of Culture, Science, and Society at the University of Lyon, and implemented a dissemination policy of territorialized scientific culture through the Pop’sciences portal, a «science shop» that experiments with participatory research and maintains a platform on research ethics, scientific integrity, and social responsibility. Since 2021, as Head of Science and Society at the University Lumière Lyon 2, specialised in Human and Social Sciences, she oversees the Lyon Science Boutique, the institution’s scientific mediation policy, the University for All Ages, the Mold Museum, the Incubator, and the department of continuing and alternative training. Throughout her training and professional career, Florence has always reconciled expertise, research, and programming with major projects on the topics of knowledge dissemination, the relationship between science and society, cultural mediation, and museographic evolution.
This seminar was an exceptional opportunity for academics, students, and professionals interested in the social impact of science and technology.
