Aiming for long-term, objective-driven science communication in the UK

Communicating science to wider lay audiences is an increasingly important part of a scientist's remit, and is something that many scientists are keen to embrace. However, based on surveys carried out amongst the UK public, as well as our own experiences in developing and delivering such activities, we believe that they are not always as effective at engaging members of the general public as they could be. In this opinion article we argue that in order to achieve more effective science communication, we need more objective-driven and long-term initiatives. As well as being implemented by the scientists themselves, funding organisations can play an important role in helping to drive such initiatives, and we suggest a list of actionable items that might allow for some of these ideas to be implemented.