Beatriz Vieite, a DigiMedia PhD student, did a sabbatical visit in the Science Communication Unit (SCU) in the University of West England (United Kingdom) during the last semester (September-December 2024). She looked to gain more applied knowledge of science communication research and build more connections with researchers in this field, thus choosing to go to the UK and the SCU.

Beatriz replicated part of her study to understand the challenges and opportunities of public engagement of science in the UK’s university collections by interviewing their curators. During her stay in the UK, she also had the chance to shadow the Oxford University Museum of Natural History public engagement team for two days and to audit a module in the MSc in Science Communication in the University of West England.

Although it was not predicted at the beginning of her PhD thesis, this visit contributed to her doctoral research and her thesis entitled “A network approach towards empowering university biological collections for science communication”. 

Beatriz Vieite was mentored by Dr David Judge and Dr Laura Hobbs at University of West England, and her PhD is supervised by Professor Pedro Beça (DigiMedia & DeCA), Dr Ascensão Ravara (CESAM & DBio) and Professor Marina Cunha (DBio).