The Group of PhD Students from the Center for Environmental and Marine Studies at the University of Aveiro, GED-CESAM, in an initiative to connect the non-academic community, organized the first “Pitch or Perish” competition.
In an allusion to a 2014 scientific article, which discussed the importance of publishing scientific work, the organization intended to draw attention to the need for researchers to communicate their work in simple language that is accessible to the non-academic public.
According to the organization, the competition, which took place with the support of CESAM last Wednesday, March 20th, at Café-Restaurante Convívio, aimed to bring together the academic community and the non-academic community of Aveiro, where CESAM-UA is inserted. The doctoral students presented their research work in 3 and 5 minutes in several stages that culminated in the selection of the best presentations by the jury, which included, among others, the vice-coordinators of CESAM Ana Cristina Esteves and Fátima Alves, who is also Director of the UA Department of Environment and Planning, and Ruben Silva, representative of GED-CESAM.
According to Ruben Silva, represented by the organization, “this event is intended to be the first of many. The reception was excellent and the fact that it was held in a public space, a reference for Aveirenses, makes this occasion a unique opportunity to share between two worlds that are sometimes not as connected as they should be”.
GED-CESAM, recently created to represent CESAM-UA PhD students, has as a pillar of its action the strengthening of ties between students and the academic and non-academic community. In this sense, there are already several events planned for the year 2024.