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What are your goals for the event? Would you like to, for example, 

• Increase information on the research topic
• Raise interest in research or university studies in general
• Inspire curiosity about new knowledge
• Inspire pupils to study subjects at school that would be useful in your field  
• Influence attitudes or behaviour
• Get new inspiration and motivation for research
• Popularise research performed in your research project 

If your contribution is part of an event organised by others, familiarise yourself with the goals or operating model of the event in advance.

• Determine the target group of the event or material. It is recommended that this includes those touched by the topic and those who could be inspired by it.
• Framing the audience often makes sense. “For anyone interested” is seldom the most effective scope, nor even is “children and adolescents”. Consider which age cohort or group could be the most appropriate.
• Consider the target group in terms of the goals of the material or event. Who will benefit the most from the content and who do you particularly wish to reach?
• If the target group is pupils of a certain age, determine the appropriate time for them taking into account school holidays, annual celebrations and other important events.
• Consider whether the event or material will be implemented in Finnish. To reach a wider audience, would it be advisable for some of it to be in English or Swedish?
• Plan the implementation with regard to the target group. If possible, test the content with trial participants to receive feedback and to ensure that it works as planned.

• Consider in advance how the audience can participate in the event. Do you wish them to be able to watch, listen or read about the research?
• Consider whether you are pursuing interaction and active audience participation.
• Consider whether you intend to carry out an activity alongside the participants or invite them to participate in the project through by means of citizen science.
• Provide teachers or parents with information and material they can use to carry out activities at school or at home.

• Would you be interested in organising a workshop? Where would it be natural to organise the event?
• What kinds of materials are needed on site and what is required from the facilities? Ask advice from people who have organised similar activities before.
• Scholarly videos, non-fiction books for children, adolescents or adults, material to support teaching, etc., will reach the general public and remain available for many years to come.
• Would you like to invite school groups to visit the University? Target groups range from early childhood education to general upper secondary schools.
• The advantage of remote workshops is their wide reach.
• Would you be interested in producing scholarly videos?
• Would you take a TET work try-out trainee for a week? 

Possible events to attend include

• Researchers’ Night (September)
  • Workshops, demonstrations. For school groups during the day, open to all in the evening.
• Bring Your Child to Work Day (November)
  • An opportunity to show young colleagues what researchers’ work is in practice.
• The Night of Science (January every other year)
• Science Forum (odd years in January)
  • Includes a day dedicated to adolescents.
• Young Academy Finland’s Meet a researcher service.

• Implementing an event as part of an existing platform increases visibility and may be more agile (e.g., Researchers’ Night).
• Contact the communications team of your campus well in advance to agree on marketing efforts, preferably months before the event.
• Inform the Academic Outreach Network well in advance about the event, allowing us to highlight it on our communication platforms and in the science education and academic outreach news.
• Wondering how to reach groups who have no established connections to the academia? With school-age and small children, an effective solution may be to contact selected schools and daycare centres. Some faculties have existing connections to schools.
• By making participation arrangements with schools in advance, it is possible to influence the number of participants in advance.
• You can also contact municipalities’ education departments, especially if the activities are to be repeated.
• Collaboration with a partner external to the University may increase the reach of the effort.

• By discussing the plan with relevant colleagues
• By collecting information on the number of participants
• By having discussions after the event with the organising group
• By asking participants’ for feedback during the event
• By collecting feedback so that material produced and the event can be prepared even better next time
• By planning the visibility of the event or the material. Your unit’s communications group and the Academic Outreach Network will help you with this.

• Contact researchers who have previously organised events.
• Ask the Academic Outreach Network for comments on your idea. The network can also find an appropriate colleague to comment on the idea.
• Contact the communications team of your campus.
• Read more about the previous implementations on, for example, the Science Education and Academic Outreach pages and news, and the Think Corner website.

External funding for academic outreach 

If you are planning to carry out academic outreach and need financial support, you can turn to your faculty. If you are working on a research project, its funds may potentially be available for academic outreach or the popularisation of scholarship.

If you need more funding, you should consider applying for external funding. You can apply for funding in cooperation with other parties, such as researchers from different disciplines.

You can seek further advice from Research Funding Services, the vice-dean for public engagement, the Academic Outreach Network or suitable foundations.

Research Funding Services provides support in seeking research funding. Its advisors can also provide information on available EU funding, of which there are different types. In practice, EU funding refers to mainly all Horizon Europe funding. Under the Horizon Europe programme, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions & Citizens initiative may be important as well as EU’s Erasmus+ and Creative Europe programmes. In other words, you should contact the when it comes to EU projects.

Topical calls for applications are available in the research.fi portal of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Many foundations support academic outreach projects, scholarly communications and the publication of non-fiction literature. They have varying discipline-specific focus areas and changing themes. A research project may also have an academic outreach component. Contact us for a list of foundations that have supported science education and academic outreach in recent years. 

The Finnish National Agency for Education has funded science education and academic outreach projects, particularly when linked with teachers’ continuing education. 

An academic outreach component may also be included in a broad-based research project. In fact, some funders require the popularisation of scholarship:

• Strategic Research Council (SRC) projects: You should include an academic outreach and science popularisation component in extensive applications, the latter, for example, being a requirement in SRC projects.
• EU funding: EU’s Erasmus+ and Creative Europe programmes. You should contact the University's Research Funding Services when it comes to EU projects.