Brown University encourages faculty, research staff, students and other researchers to actively communicate about their work to enhance the impact of their scholarship, raise public awareness, spark new partnerships, secure additional support and demonstrate how Brown as a leading research university makes a difference in people’s lives.
Division of Research
Promote Your Research
A Network of Research Communicators
Brown’s campus is home to more than 100 professional communicators who bring expertise ranging from reporting, writing and news media outreach, to social media, marketing strategy, web and digital communications, photography, videography and more.
Together, those communicators — who are embedded in academic and administrative units across the University — help to tell the Brown research story.
While many communicators proactively look for compelling research stories, researchers can improve the visibility of their work by directly engaging with communicators and alerting them to upcoming peer-reviewed publications, honors or other newsworthy topics.
You have a great story to tell — and Brown wants you to tell your story.
Office of University Communications
Have a discovery with the potential to generate public interest? A research story that would make for a great feature story or video? Expertise that’s in demand for national or local news?
OUC’s writers, media officers, videographers, social media experts and fellow communicators — including members of the News and Editorial team, who maintain close relationships with faculty on the writers’ academic beats — tell stories of Brown researchers making advances in science, engineering, medicine, public health, social sciences, the humanities and other disciplines. This is part of OUC’s core mission.
With a focus on scholarship of interest to general audiences, OUC identifies timely storytelling opportunities that promote University scholars and align with Brown’s focus on making an impact as a leading research university. Ultimately, its teams bring those stories to the world through news and features, national and international media coverage, social media, web and digital platforms, and other key channels.
Schools, Institutes, Centers and Departments
Depending on your affiliations and focus within Brown, faculty and students interested in publicizing research may be able to partner with communicators embedded in Brown’s schools, institutes, centers and departments.
Communicators in many academic units create content for dedicated news websites, maintain social media channels, and publish stories through newsletters and magazines. Some also support symposia, events and other convenings that aim to elevate research and engage audiences beyond Brown. Reach out to the communications staff in your unit(s) today to learn their interest in your research.
News from Brown Schools
Division of Research Communications
The Division of Research’s communications team, often working in partnership with other communicators across campus, tells stories about the scholarship, expertise and innovation of Brown researchers through feature writing, multimedia stories, social media, photography and videography.
The team builds awareness about key resources, funding opportunities, events and news relevant to Brown researchers, and manages multiple publications and communications channels dedicated to elevating Brown experts and research — those include Impact: Research at Brown magazine, a Faces of Brown Research video series and the division’s Research Notes newsletter.
Tips to Promote Your Research
Here are a few simple ways you can begin to promote your research:
- Keep your Researchers@Brown profile up to date so everyone from Brown communicators to external journalists can quickly and easily find subject-matter experts.
- Consider guidelines and best practices for leveraging social media channels to expand your network and increase the visibility of your research.
- Build a dedicated web presence for your lab, team or project through sites.brown.edu, a Brown-supported self-service platform for creating websites.
- Alert communications staff in OUC — with ample lead time, when possible — to new discoveries, research findings, high-impact developments, milestones or stories with feature potential.
- Contact communicators who support your school, institute, department and/or center to share your interest in promoting your research and peer-reviewed studies.
- Contact the Division of Research’s communications team to pitch stories for Impact magazine, @brownuresearch social media posts and the Faces of Brown Research video series.
- Build a relationship with the relevant communicator on OUC’s News and Editorial team, which maintains relationships with local, regional, national and international journalists.
- Have you been contacted by the media? Ask for support from OUC in evaluating potential media opportunities and preparing for successful interviews.
- Do you have relevant expertise on a topic generating news headlines? Work with OUC — and/or your school-based communications team if you have an appointment in biology and medicine, engineering, international and public affairs, or public health — on a plan to proactively solicit interview opportunities with key media outlets.
- Consider authoring an op-ed on a timely topic in the news based on the expertise you’ve built through your research.
- Attend relevant networking events, conferences and symposia, or give presentations, publish posters or abstracts and/or participate on expert panels.
- When invited to do so, make sure to take advantage of opportunities hosted by Brown to share your research with industry leaders, funding agencies and government offices.