BCSP interns learned tricks to communicate their research effectively

The first day of the workshop was devoted to the basics of communication, which the lecturer explained through different phases in the policy cycle and many practical examples. Some of the issues discussed are who is the target group we are addressing, how the message and the main findings of the research are formulated, as well as what are the effective ways of presenting and visualizing data (op-ed, blog post, infographic, glossary and similar).

On the second day, the interns prepared and presented their work, after which they received comments and suggestions for improvement from the lecturer, other participants, and mentors. Through practical and interactive teamwork, the interns developed short products on six different topics during the workshop: infographics on cyber attacks, video surveillance protection and the role of independent regulatory bodies in security sector oversight, a backgrounder on total defense, a hybrid warfare blog, and a timeline on the communal militia.

“Through these workshops, I realized how important it is to communicate policy proposals in the right way so that they can be realized. It was particularly interesting because the workshops were interactive, so as interns we got the opportunity to test our newly acquired skills on our own research. I am sure that it will help me to be more successful in my further research work”, pointed out the BCSP intern Siniša Prodanović.

The workshop was held within the project “Empowering Youth to Promote Security Sector Reform”, which the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy is organizing with the support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Government of Sweden.