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How do we as academic researchers ensure that our research actually reaches, and thereby benefits, society and its people? The podcast series ‘Postdocs Talking – from Research to Society’ focuses on how academic researchers can build bridges between science and several important sectors of society: language when engaging people with diabetes, funding for research, innovation and its relation to industry, policy-making, education and social media, and art in scientific representation. Listen ...
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How can we make sure the practices of disseminating research findings evolve with the times? The primary means of dissemination is publication. And while the contents of scientific publications have changed a lot over the last 100 years, the methods and structure of publication have seen relatively few changes, and most of them only in the last 10 …
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Did you know that half a million children die every year of a completely treatable disease? Can you imagine what it would be like to be pregnant or have children in a low-income country where this disease is prevalent? This is the reality for many people all over the world. And while it is indeed preventable, malaria kills millions each year becaus…
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How many child development issues go unnoticed in the flurry of short doctor's appointments and limited home visits? How do you properly detect and identify mental health issues in adolescents living with chronic disease? Maybe it’s time to prioritise and optimise a sometimes overlooked screening tool in clinical practice: Questionnaires. MD and Ph…
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Is the scientific publication, as we know it, dead? This was the central question behind the theme for this year’s DDEA Postdoc Summit Challenge. Researchers learn early on to think in terms of impact factors and citation metrics. In an overflowing ocean of scientific content, the pressure to make your publications matter seems higher than ever. Ye…
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Did you know that having diabetes can affect sexual function? It can even cause erectile dysfunction (ED). And, for a proportion of people living with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, drugs like Viagra have little to no effect. So how do we find new ways of treatment for a growing segment of the population that is missed by current treatment o…
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AI is dramatically changing the landscape of drug discovery in research today, but what is needed for the best outcomes? How do we overcome the challenges? Artificial intelligence is not the future anymore; it is happening now – and it is happening on a grand scale. Academic researchers and pharmaceutical companies have started utilising AI to aid …
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Nowadays science is often driven by patterns in big data. What can we learn from the data and how does finding patterns help us understand chronic diseases better? And, where do we start? Perhaps we start with human genetics research on a little island in the North Atlantic with about 350,000 inhabitants. Iceland is a small society with a healthcar…
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How far do you live from a healthcare clinic? Around the corner or across the country? In the Western world we have come to expect easy access to healthcare facilities, but that's not always the case. And, access to health care is essential for people living with diabetes or other chronic diseases, because they need regular treatment and screenings…
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The open science train has already left the station, but how do we get everyone on board? Perhaps the road to systemic change is paved with incremental change? Our society is driven by scientific advances. As such, studies ought to be highly transparent and easily verifiable, yet that is not always the case. Openness in science is the way forward f…
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Why does one person gain weight differently than another? What are the molecular events that dictate fat tissue function, and how can we use this information to narrow the gap between lab bench and disease prevention? Fat is an intelligent organ. Our fat tissue can be influenced by a myriad of different factors, and it can differ vastly from one pe…
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Might glucagon help us understand diabetes better? And what are the challenges with studying this largely unexplored hormone? The year 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the first evidence of glucagon-mediated metabolism. From a research perspective, glucagon has long stood in the shadow of insulin. Until now. We are on the edge of a paradigm shif…
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Can people living with type 1 diabetes rise to elite levels in sports? And if so, what does it take to get there? The challenge of blood glucose management and the fear of hypoglycaemia keep many people with type 1 diabetes from exercising regularly. Training for a competitive sport as an elite level is a big task in and of itself. Adding diabetes …
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What happens with a child during pregnancy when the mother has malaria? Could malaria during pregnancy even cause diabetes in the child later in life? With the majority of diabetes studies focusing on Western urbanity, we desperately need data on the challenges and changes happening in rural areas of developing countries. In countries like Tanzania…
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Being able to attract funding is a major factor in determining success in academia. While selection processes were introduced to help distribute money fairly, the current system is flawed: 1) applying for funding is time-consuming, 2) funding agencies prioritise research areas without involving early-career researchers, and 3) the selection process…
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Societal advancement is dependent on innovation. Novel ideas are often birthed in academia, while the tools for their development often lie within industry. Bridging the two can be difficult. Currently, tech transfer offices, innovation institutes and funding agencies aim to do so, but most support fails to capture early-stage ideas. A lack of know…
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As scientists, we want to make discoveries that benefit society and people. To make a societal difference, we need our research findings to become or influence governmental law and policy. Therefore, we need to reach policy makers. However, translating research findings into meaningful and understandable context for policymakers is challenging. Fur…
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Scientists have a professional responsibility to explain the benefits of their science to the public. Social media has changed the landscape of communication, making it both easier and harder for the scientific community to reach the wider society. The ease of distribution and availability of information is in many ways positive, but misinformation…
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“The greatest scientists are artists as well,” Albert Einstein once said. But how can scientists communicate their results more effectively through art? One of the most common ways of communicating science today is through a one-dimensional focus on visuals such as graphs, illustrations and images. These often lack aesthetics and thereby fail to ca…
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Language is a powerful tool for shaping attitudes and behaviour. Today, scientists and health care professionals’ communication with and about people with diabetes often includes non-inclusive, stigmatising and disempowering language. Using inclusive and empowering language has a huge potential to improve the health outcomes of people with diabetes…
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