November 9-11, 2026 - Autumn school on Science Communication
As part of the SCEWERO project, Fondazione CMCC, in cooperation with Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB), will organize an online Autumn School on Science Communication between 9–11 November 2026. The training is designed to equip young researchers with practical knowledge and skills for planning, developing, and implementing effective science and risk communication strategies, with particular attention to extreme weather, climate-related risks, and the growing role of artificial intelligence in science communication.
Over three days, participants will explore the foundations of effective risk communication, including trust, credibility, audience perception, and the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) framework. The programme will also introduce international guidance on early warning and risk communication and examine findings from the SCEWERO project on heat-health warning perception and institutional trust in Romania.
A comparative European perspective will complement the programme through a case study on heat vulnerability in Turin, Italy, providing an opportunity to discuss how communication approaches can be adapted to different institutional, social, and regional contexts.
The Summer School will combine lectures with interactive discussions, polls, case-study exercises, and Q&A sessions. All lectures will be delivered online and recorded, allowing the training materials to remain available for further educational and dissemination activities within the SCEWERO project.
Preliminary Agenda
Format: Online, half-day sessions
Dates: November 9 – 11, 2026
Daily structure
Applies each day, approximately 3 hours.
Recordings taken each day for later translation into two widening-country languages, per grant requirements.
Day 1 — Monday, Nov 9: Foundations of Risk Communication
• Session 1: Principles of effective risk communication — Covello’s seven cardinal rules; trust, credibility, and audience perception
• Session 2: Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CDC CERC) framework — phases of crisis communication, message-mapping basics
• Interactive: Breakout discussion — participants map a past extreme-weather event onto the CERC phases
Day 2 — Tuesday, Nov 10: International Frameworks & the SCEWERO Case
• Session 1: WHO/UNDRR early warning and risk communication guidance — early warnings for all, multi-hazard approaches
• Session 2: SCEWERO empirical case study — heat-health warning perception in Romania; overview of the trust typology (four profiles, from high-trust to low-trust)
• Interactive: Live poll + discussion — participants guess which message framing works best for which trust profile, then compare against actual SCEWERO findings- tbd
Day 3 — Wednesday, Nov 11: Comparative European Case Study
• Session 1: Guest lecture — Turin heat-vulnerability case study
• Session 2: Comparative discussion — Romania vs. Italy: institutional trust landscapes, communication channels, lessons transferable across widening countries
• Interactive: open discussion on adapting the Turin approach to other regional contexts