The 7th edition of CommOCEAN, the international conference on ocean science communication, will take place in Bergen, Norway. It offers the unique opportunity to enhance communication skills in ocean science for professional communicators and marine scientists alike. The conference will explore four key themes: the use of artificial intelligence and new technologies in ocean science communication; security-related and geopolitical dimensions of ocean and science communication in a time of crisis and disruption; increasing citizen engagement and ocean literacy through communication; and an open topic session. JPI Oceans will participate in the latter with a presentation titled "Navigating the in-between: ocean science, policy, and the art of communicating both."
As an organisation, JPI Oceans sits at an intersection, and so does its communication work. We are neither a research institution producing science nor a policy body making decisions. Instead, we bridge the two, and this in-between is more intricate than it looks.
Science communication is foundational to our communication practice: we make ocean research legible to ministries, funding agencies and decision-makers, not by highlighting individual scientific discoveries, but by framing the results of entire projects and initiatives (our “Joint Actions”). Yet policy communication plays an even bigger role, demanding different timing and a sense of where a message may land in the policy cycle. Lastly, climate communication has become closely attached to ocean science, requiring familiarity with sensitive, often-contested narratives. The result is a role defined by disciplinary breadth, audience fragmentation, and a peculiar challenge: rather than one specific position or discovery, we promote transnational coordination and knowledge exchange.
This presentation reflects on the JPI Oceans communication experience with honesty: the wins, exemplified by our approach to UNOC3, and the fails, when activities didn’t deliver as planned. Because, ironically, inhabiting the space between science and policy is harder than standing on either side. And the most useful thing we can offer to a room full of ocean science communicators is not a success story, but a map of that terrain.