Anyone interested in science and technology in developing countries can now sign up for a free new online resource. The monthly TWAS LinkedIn newsletter, ‘TWAS Opportunity Corner’, showcases opportunities for early-career scientists from the global South. You can subscribe here.
Launched in January 2024, it lists open calls for researchers from the developing world to pursue education and training at prestigious universities and research institutions. It also includes opportunities for research grants and calls for nominations for TWAS awards. The newsletter’s launch is part of the renewed commitment of the Academy to expand outreach on social media.
This strategy uses different tools from the ‘TWAS communications ecosystem’ – various media platforms that make it possible to reach out to diverse audiences.
The Academy’s website twas.org serves as the central hub of its digital communications strategy. The website includes its directory of TWAS Fellows and Young Affiliates, and regularly features articles, news, and guides about its programmes to build scientific capacity in the global South.
The TWAS social media channels on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn serve as windows into the Academy’s work, providing followers with the opportunity to interact with the organization and share its calls with their own networks. Multimedia content produced by the Academy is available on Flickr for photos and on YouTube for videos. And while the achievements of each calendar year are included in yearly Annual Reports, special projects like books and documentaries are our means of celebrating milestones or confronting the new challenges that developing countries encounter.
The Academy also uses several e-publications to reach out to its community and beyond. The TWAS newsletter, which went fully digital in 2023, focuses on the major challenges facing developing countries today, providing information on the impact of TWAS initiatives. The TWAS Plus e-bulletin promotes news and opportunities offered by the Academy, its Young Affiliates Network, and associated organizations—the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). In early 2024, TWAS Plus adopted a new layout to group its initiatives more effectively into easy-to-understand categories.
The work of TWAS, its Fellows, and its Young Affiliates is often the subject of articles in mainstream media, and press coverage is collected on a dedicated webpage. Journalists interested in knowing more about the Academy can visit the dedicated press room.
Over four decades, TWAS has remained steadfast in its mission of supporting sustainable prosperity through research, education, policy, and diplomacy. And while its daily operations adapt to current circumstances, its communication activities also continually adopt new technologies to meet the challenges of today’s interconnected communication landscape.
Giovanni Ortolani