Low awareness but high willingness to engage in science communication: a cross-disciplinary survey study in a Japanese University

Researchers play a pivotal role as key actors in science communication. Therefore, it is imperative for academic institutions to support their activities. However, there are many uncertainties regarding activities by researcher and institutional support. Notably, researchers’ awareness and experience of these activities need to be clarified. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire survey on researchers at Kyushu University in Japan to assess their awareness of and willingness to participate in science communication activities. The survey was conducted between 2021 and 2022. We sent a questionnaire to 2,336 researchers and received responses from 577 (24.7%). The survey revealed that the awareness of science communication was not very high (43%). Remarkably, awareness among medical, dental, and pharmaceutical researchers was relatively low. However, all field researchers recognized the importance of the activities and had a strong willingness to participate if given the opportunity. Furthermore, the results show that researchers in the humanities and social sciences had a relatively high awareness of promoting science communication in Japanese Science, Technology, and Innovation policy. Researchers over 40 years of age had more experience than researchers aged 20–39 years. Barriers such as time constraints and lack of regulation of personnel evaluation were reaffirmed.