Zara Teixeira at the POIESIS Project Round Table
On 15 November, MARE researcher Zara Teixeira took part in the round table of the POIESIS project, which brought together science communicators and researchers from various Portuguese institutions. 
POIESIS is a three-year project bringing together seven partners from across Europe to study the impact of research integrity issues and societal engagement practices on trust in science. In other words, the project seeks to combat society's mistrust of science by understanding how scientific integrity and the integration of citizens in research can promote trust in science.
MARE researcher Zara Teixeira is very present in the project and has even taken part in two stakeholder meetings to share ‘MARE's reflections, doubts and good practices that contribute to scientific integrity, the organisation of science, public involvement and science communication.’
‘The problem of trust in science became more obvious after the COVID-19 pandemic,’ the researcher explains.’ Projects like POIESIS are extremely relevant to understanding how we can contribute to combating society's mistrust of science.’
More recently, Zara Teixeira was one of the fourteen participants in the project's round table, which discussed recommendations for good institutional practice on scientific integrity and science communication. The session also discussed new ways of implementing these guidelines in four key areas: scientific integrity, the organisation of science, public involvement and science communication.
‘In the end, we felt that, in general, in Portugal, mistrust in science is not generalised, but there is greater scrutiny. Regardless of this perception of the participants in the events, there is a general feeling that there is still a lot to be done to reduce public distrust,’ says the researcher.
According to ISCTE's Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, where the face-to-face part of the round table took place, the results will be released at the beginning of 2025. Despite this, Zara Teixeira says that reducing the public's distrust of science requires ‘a greater culture of transparency; a system for evaluating researchers’ performance that is effectively less focused on quantitative metrics; innovative and sustainable practices in terms of public involvement time, and a greater appreciation of science communication.’
For an overview of the results and recommendations of the POIESIS research click HERE