Project WIKO

The main goal of Project WIKO (Wissenschaftskommunikation) is to communicate SFB 1313’s research, developments, and activities in the field of porous media to the public and to the porous media community. Porous media systems can be found from technological, to environmental to biological system. There are practically everywhere. The established science communication measures help to explain why porous media are relevant for society (e.g. energy storage, drinking water quality, or tumour growth) and why fundamental research in this field deserves to be supported.

In the first funding period we successfully established communication in a broad coverage to the general public and to the porous media academic community through online media, the traditional press, events, and a popular science exhibition. For the general public, it was first of all necessary to create an awareness that porous media are almost everywhere in our everyday lives and that even we ourselves are porous media. Building upon this, the scientific activities were made transparent and SFB 1313’s insights were shared with interested citizens. The relevance of porous media research was demonstrated as well as how it will eventually contribute to improving applications in environmental engineering and technology. Internal and external communication strategies were pursued as both are intertwining. The internal communication activities are important for networking within SFB 1313 and to be in constant exchange with all researchers and the 17 research projects. Beyond the whole SFB 1313 team, also the national and international collaborative partners, and the porous media academic community need to be updated about the research projects, methods, developments, and results at any time. The external communication activities help to further raise interest in porous media research among various groups of the general public.

Regarding metrics for a successful SFB 1313 science communication, we identified some quantitative indicators like visits to our website and its search engine visibility, and followers and posts on our social media channels as well as more qualitative ones like outreach, transparency concerning our research and participation in various public events.

Measures FP1

• Public science exhibition "Pretty Porous - Alles Porös", shown at the Planetarium Stuttgart from 18 June to 30 August 2020
• External exhibition website of the science exhibition "Pretty Porous - Alles Porös" www.allesporoes.de, collecting all the content
• Corporate identity for SFB 1313
• SFB 1313 website that is used as central information platform and also serves as an “archive”
• News articles about SFB 1313 related topics
• Social media accounts: LinkedIn and YouTube
• Print materials about SFB 1313 and about the science exhibition
• Newsletters four the SFB 1313 team and external partners
• Films, presenting SFB 1313 scientific topics
• Traditional press activities
• Participation in university and non-university events, such as Gilrs' Day, TryScience, Tag der Wissenschaft, Junior Engineering Academy etc.
• Laboratory Tours
• International cooperational exchange projects for students in the field of engineering and porous media research
• "Anneliese Niethammer Lecture Series", named after the first female professor of the University of Stuttgart, that gives women in the science a platform for their research
• Audio interviews with our SFB 1313 guests

On the basis of FP 1, we continued our work in the second funding period (FP 2). We have made our scientific activities transparent and shared them with citizens, focusing on the environmental topic “drought and salt precipitation”. We have demonstrated the relevance of our research in this field and explained how it can eventually contribute to improving environmental applications. We therefore realised a new SFB 1313 short film on the same topic. We furthermore realised a digital and portable porous media exhibit, explaining porous media processes in an appealing and playful manner. The exhibit is entitled “Below the Surface”.  It was firstly introduced during the SimTech SimTech (EXC 2075) exhibition “Simulated Reality” in 2023 in the City Hall of Stuttgart. The SFB 1313 was an official partner of this exhibition. We showed the exhibit again during the Tag der Wissenschaft 2024 (the science day) at the University of Stuttgart and during the 3rd Stuttgart Science Festival in 2024 (city hall Stuttgart), organized by the city of Stuttgart.

Measures FP2

• Public SimTech science exhibition "Simulated Reality", shown at the City Hall Stuttgart from 26 September to 13 October 2023. SFB 1313 was an official partner
• Digital Exhibit "Below the Surface"
• Scientific Poster "Porous Media Everywhere"
• SFB 1313 website
• News articles about SFB 1313 related topics
• Social media accounts: LinkedIn and YouTube
• Print materials about SFB 1313 and about the science exhibition
• Newsletters four the SFB 1313 team and external partners
• Films: 1. "Evaporation and Salt Precipitation, 2. "Cleaning Oil Spills and Storing Carbon Dioxide: New Insights into Porous Media" (in progress)
• Traditional press activities: Two articles in the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit"
• Participation in university and non-university events, such as Gilrs' Day, TryScience, Tag der Wissenschaft, Junior Engineering Academy etc.
• Laboratory Tours
• International cooperational exchange projects for students in the field of engineering and porous media research
• "Anneliese Niethammer Lecture Series", named after the first female professor of the University of Stuttgart, that gives women in the science a platform for their research
• Audio interviews with our SFB 1313 guests

In FP 3 we would like to continue and to pursue our internal as well as external communication strategies, as both are intertwining. We will focus on a new society relevant porous media related topic that we would like to prepare for a broader audience and that shall accompany us during the whole funding period. The porous medium ”bio cement” and the construction of buildings with it is a possible topic that is an easily understandable example. We will again realise a porous media film and a porous media exhibit that suits to our already established exhibition content. Furthermore, we will offer school workshops in a modular and flexible way. We invite school classes (higher grades: classes 9 to 13) to the University of Stuttgart to experiment and simulate with us and researchers will also go to schools to give workshops on site. The workshop will be offered for the first time on 16 July 2025 to pupils from the Karls Gymnasium in Stuttgart and again a few days later as a three-day workshop on 25, 28 and 29 July 2025 at the Gymnasium Rutesheim.