The outcome of yesterday's discussion of the science budget in the Portuguese Parliament was pretty vague, as the Minister insists on minimising the funding cuts. Apparently this government will seek for sponsorship in order to maintain Pavilhão do Conhecimento, an interactive science museum in Lisbon.

The Wellcome Trust has launched a new £3 million public engagement with bioscience grants programme. The aim of all these schemes is to encourage greater engagement between scientific and other communities.

The next OPUS International conference will be held in Kleiner Festsaal, University of Vienna, Austria, from 28-30 November, under the theme "Envisioning Scientific Citizenship: Science, Governance and Public Participation in Europe".
OPUS stands for Optimising Public Understanding of Science and is a collaborative project, funded by the European Commission (Improving Human Potential programme).

The Public Understanding of Science journal has updated the list of its forthcoming articles, scheduled for October 2002.

The 7th International Conference on Public Communication of Science and Technology will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 5-7 December, under the theme "Science Communication in a Diverse World". The preliminary programm is available and places are filling fast.

Today, the Portuguese Minister for Science is going to discuss the next year budget in the Parliament special commision. The Portuguese scientific community is nervously awaiting the outcome as reductions are awesome in several areas. Ciência Viva, the public programme for promoting science literacy has been classified by the Minister as "expensive and elitist".

The last special issue of RTD Info, the magazine for european reserach, is called Talking Science and is dedicated to science communication and science/media relationships. It worths a browse.

The OECD has recently added a new page on Public Understanding of Science in the Member countries. This web site presents recent activities developed on PUS surveys, educational trends, promotion of dialogue between scientists and the public, etc.

Grants of £500 to £20,000 are now available through the Copus Grant Schemes 2002/2003 for projects to engage people with the contemporary issues and ideas linked with science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine. First closing date next 21st November.

PEST control is a new blog on science communication and science policy.

I am a former bench scientist in biology and a freelance science writer.
Right now I am starting a new research project on the evaluation of publicly funded programmes to promote science literacy.
This weblog will be tighly connected to this project and every input is wellcome.
See you around, maybe not daily, but definitely often.