Naked Neuroscience: a spine-tingling interactive, educational multimedia initiative (360G-Wellcome-096376_Z_11_Z)

Working alongside research-active neuroscientists and educators, we envisage the creation of a multimedia, neuroscience-focused, audience-interactive touring stage show aimed at schools and the general public and comprising a series of linked experiments and demonstrations designed to illustrate the workings of the nervous system. This initiative, which will be curriculum-relevant and targeted at ages 12 and up, will be supported by a suite of freely-accessible online multimedia content including illustrated webpages, worksheets and interactive experiments for users to try at home, as well as video sequences and a monthly 60 minute neuroscience podcast. The podcast will be conversational, news-led and feature updates on recent discoveries in the neuroscience arena as well as interviews with leading researchers internationally. Moreover, it will be produced and presented by researchers themselves, providing valuable training in traditional and new media broadcast techniques. To maximise the overall reach of the project, the resulting content will also form part of the weekly output of the Naked Scientists BBC radio show, podcast and website. These are existing awardwinning public engagement initiatives that reach a large (multi-million scale) and diverse listenership from a range of ages and backgrounds, including audiences judged to be hard to reach. Together, these initiatives will enable us to take neuroscience-focused content to millions of people, including, most critically, young people whose interest in science we are seeking to nurture. At the same time, the direct involvement of scientists of all levels, including PhD students and undergraduates, means that we have an opportunity to help these researchers to develop their own skills in public engagement while simultaneously ensuring that the resulting project content remains scientifically robust and relevant.