Growing Brains - a Science Outreach Initiative

Our brain is what truly makes us human and enables us to cooperate and solve complex problems within a society. Generating public knowledge and creating awareness around the developing brain is part of our mission as researchers. Our project Growing Brains combines elements of science outreach, co-creation, and dialogue to further public knowledge about brain and behavioral development, pointing out the connections to highly relatable topics such as mental health, lifelong learning, or the mysteries of the teenage brain. We will also guide our audience towards an increased understanding of the fundamental principles of the scientific process – how does science actually work? 

In this outreach initiative led by Prof. Nora Raschle and science communicator Sabine Gysi, we will create a graphic novel as well as different types of dialogue event formats, all aimed at an audience of adolescents and adults in Switzerland and beyond. The project is based on past and current work by our team. In a co-creation process, we will involve our future audience as well as various early and mid-career research scientists in developing the graphic novel and the dialogue events. To achieve a greater reach and generate increased awareness among decision-makers, we are collaborating with experienced partners such as Science et Cité, and Life Science Zurich, and the Children's University of Zurich, and we seek to collaborate with a renowned publishing house. The project Growing Brains is funded by SNSF Agora and by the cogito foundation. 

Visit the Growing Brains website for more information