The Katia and Maurice Krafft Award is the newest addition to the EGU awards and medals portfolio. The award honours researchers who have developed and implemented innovative and inclusive methods for engaging with and communicating a geoscience topic or event with a diverse audience. Submissions for this and other EGU 2020 awards and medals will be accepted from January 2019. The first Katia and Maurice Krafft awardees are anticipated to be honoured at the EGU General Assembly 2020.
Engaging the public with science is increasingly important in today’s society, both to create shared spaces between scientists and communities, and to ensure that research is representative and relevant to the communities and organisations that fund it. Science communication, outreach and engagement are crucial to create inclusive dialogues around the diverse geoscience challenges that face communities around the globe. Yet, the value of these activities is often overlooked and less recognised in professional circles than traditional academic outputs, though this is changing.
The EGU recognises that science outreach requires specific skills and dedication, making it a challenging and time-consuming enterprise. By establishing the Katia and Maurice Krafft Award, the EGU seeks to encourage, reward and professionalise outreach and engagement activities in the geosciences.
The geoscience outreach award is named after the French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. The couple dedicated their lives to documenting and sharing volcanological phenomena, mostly through film and photography, informing the public and educating communities about volcanic hazards.
The new award was proposed by the EGU Outreach Committee and approved by the EGU Council in October 2018.
The award complements another initiative by the EGU Outreach Committee, the EGU Public Engagement Grants, which support EGU members interested in developing a specific outreach project. Applications for the EGU Public Engagement Grants 2019 are open until 15 February.
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