A communication agency get rewarded for its work on different EU projects
Science communication nowadays The last couple of months, scientists' freedom of speech has been threatened widely in the world. President Trump contests vaccination, threats to erase research data and qualifies the topic of climate changes as « fake news ». Scientists reacted immediately on the 22nd April 2017 with the march for science, in the streets of a hundred cities in the world, from Paris to Washington DC. A way to be heard, and to give a reminder that scientific communication gives society the access we deserve to science. The agency Sparks & Co which supported the march, fosters the vision and the development of this communication on a global scale, with the mission to help solve humanity’s biggest challenges with innovation. A symbolic victory Helping to solve humanity’s biggest challenges is the mission we have chosen. This 31st May 2017, and only 3 years after its foundation, the Sparks & Co team has received the « Consultancy of the year » award given by its peers, during the gala ceremony that took place in Brussels this year... It is a great recognition for the agency and a beautiful victory for science communication that re-establishes the necessity to preserve science communication for humanity and progress. The agency: European and scientific Sparks & Co was founded in 2014 at the start of the Horizon 2020 program. The agency portfolio is composed of 6 EU funded projects on a long-term basis. The agency secured 24 million euros for those projects. Sparks & Co was also nominated at the European Excellence Awards in Comms & PR 2016 in the category “new agency of the year”. Today the agency counts 10 team members with expertise from marketing and graphic design to project management. A (young) French success story This success didn’t appear overnight. It rewards the hard work of Sparks & Co’s founder and CEO, Camille Cocaud. At only 25 years old and with no experience in entrepreneurship at all, she had the ambition to create a communication agency to meet EU research projects’ needs. Starting with a laptop and a folding table as her office desk, she is today leading a group of 9 collaborators. The journey to this recognition was not easy. In fact she often had to face sexist stereotypes and a professional environment relatively skeptical towards skillful young professionals. « Sparks & Co started out as a challenge I gave to myself, and everyday I’m amazed by the extent of this adventure! » Camille Cocaud
Keywords
H2020, communication, dissemination, awards, scicomm, EU project
Countries
France