Science for Humanity

2023 AAAS ANNUAL MEETING

March 2-5, 2023

Washington, DC

CALL FOR SCIENTIFIC SESSION PROPOSAL: LIGHTNING TALKS

Deadline: Sunday, June 19, 2022, 11:59 p.m. PT

Proposals will not be accepted after the deadline.

The scientific endeavor aims to provide findings, models, tools, and advances to better understand and address the myriad complex challenges facing society. Meeting this goal requires collective objectivity determined by a wealth of individual and diverse perspectives and experiences—a sample as broad as the diversity of disciplines in the scientific endeavor itself.

Highlighting the importance and just integration of our multiplicity, the 2023 AAAS Annual Meeting will feature groundbreaking multi-disciplinary research – research that advances knowledge and responds to the needs of humanity. Drawing from work ranging from astronomy to zoology, the program committee seeks proposals that highlight breakthroughs in science and technology and, in particular, those that incorporate the importance of diversity – in its investigators, subjects of study, and translational implications.

The AAAS Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee is particularly interested in proposals that connect to the theme. However, proposals not directly related to the theme will be considered if they involve ground-breaking areas of research, new and exciting developments or new angles for approaching a topic, or cross-cutting activities in support of science, technology, and education. See the Proposal Review Considerations section for the information provided to reviewers.

GENERAL INFORMATION

PROPOSALS OF INTEREST

10-Minute Lightning Talk Format: These live in-person short presentations offer individuals the opportunity to lead and tailor a discussion for ten minutes (one speaker only per submission). Solo-Spotlights can be on any sci/tech topic relevant to those attending the AAAS meeting--discoveries, innovation, or policy. The range of possible topics is broad but talks themselves should be focused so they can be presented clearly and concisely in ten minutes. Talks should be dynamic and engaging and should use high-quality visuals, a focused message, and plain language.

The Program Committee will group the accepted Solo-Spotlights into sessions by topic or cross-cutting theme, with Q&As at the end of the grouping of talks.

Once the session proposal is accepted, in order to participate in the meeting, all panelists will need to sign a recording waiver.

Successful proposals are characterized by:

• Newsworthy and/or novel and inspiring topics with broad relevancy for the interdisciplinary AAAS audience.
• A clearly articulated message about the big idea to be conveyed.
• Demonstration of good public communication skills and experience through the video clip of a prior talk.

AUDIENCE

Based on previous registration data, here is the overall profile for Annual Meeting attendees:

• The top work sector categories are 60% from the academic sector, 11% Government, and 9% Research. AAAS is very interested in receiving proposals that draw from the Industry sector.
• 85% have advanced degrees, with 50% holding PhDs
• 50% identified as Male, 45% as Female and 5% Non-binary/prefer not to answer
• The age groups are equally spread between the following groups: 25-34 years, 35 to 44 years, 45 to 54 years, 55 to 64 years, and 65 years or over.

SESSION SET UP

Each Lightning Talk will be provided with:

• One Podium with microphone
• One Projector and accompanying screen
• One Audience Microphone for Audience questions and comments
• The Audience will be set for theater.

No additional equipment will be available.

TIMELINE

COMMUNICATION
To receive notifications and updates, please ensure that the following email addresses will not be blocked: meetings@aaas.org; agreene@aaas.org; cjones@aaas.org; nmaylett@aaas.org, and aaas@confex.com.

NOTE ON LANGUAGE: For language choice, use American English spelling and translations. Spell out all abbreviations and acronyms.

*AAAS reserves the right to edit all submissions for publication, as they will be published in the online meeting program, pocket guide, and app. Modifications are sometimes made to improve clarity and encourage attendance.

FIVE STEPS TO FOLLOW TO SUBMIT A LIGHTNING TALK PROPOSAL

Read these instructions carefully first, then click the “submit” button in the sidebar. Incomplete proposals will be eliminated from consideration.

1. SET UP PROPOSAL

PROPOSED TITLE (Maximum of 80 characters including spaces)

• Avoid jargon; keep in mind that session attendees may be non-specialists.
• Ensure that a keyword for your presentation is used in the first three words in the title.

SUBMITTER EMAIL ADDRESS
Please enter a valid email address where messages can be received and accessed year-round. The submitter will immediately receive an email confirming the initiation of a session proposal and provided a link for returning to and editing your submission. Note that the session organizer will become the primary point of contact for the session rather than the submitter and will receive all notifications post-submission.

SUBJECT CATEGORIES
Please select the Primary and Secondary Subject Categories as well as three to five keywords that best describe the overall nature of the proposal. This information is used to ensure that reviewers are assigned correctly and so that the Program Committee can generate broader scientific session tracks or sub-themes. The full list of subject categories is available here.

GOALS

Describe your goals for this Lightning Talk presentation (up to 750 characters including spaces). For example, what kinds of questions or reactions do you want from the audience? What do you hope to get out of the experience – either research-related, or other kinds of takeaways?

VISUALS

Please describe a visual you may use. This could include props, video clips, or graphics. Please do not use graphs and tables from scientific papers. Maximum of 750 characters including spaces.

SPEAKING EXPERIENCE

Please share any experience with public speaking and engaging non-scientific audiences. This experience might include science cafes or festivals, public lectures, or non-science major courses; this should not include other teaching or scientific conferences (maximum of 750 characters including spaces).

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
AAAS requires clear disclosures from all presenters at its Annual Meeting regarding any affiliations, funding sources, or financial holdings that might raise questions of bias or be perceived to have potentially influenced presentation content.

Organizers will be asked to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest for the panelists or list conflicts of interest. Panelists will also be asked to provide this information at a later date.

VIDEO CLIP

Feel free to include a video clip of a polished, well-organized course lecture, presentation, or departmental talk. Please link to the video by providing a working URL.

You may submit an unlisted video from YouTube or Vimeo.

If you choose to upload a video, the format should be in a MP4 or MOV file type, not AVI, WMV or MKV. The video should be created in 720 or 1280HD, and the it should be H264 encoded. Sound and video should both be clear. You will be evaluated on your presentation style rather than your videography skills.

2. ADD/EDIT PEOPLE

SCHEDULING NOTE:

When submitting please ensure you are available to participate at any time between Friday, March 3-through the evening of Sunday, March 5, 2023.

Once the scientific session schedule is announced in the fall of 2022, it will be considered final.

TRAVEL SUPPORT NOTE:

Organizers, speakers, and others participate in the program at their own expense or use funding secured by an organizer from a source that has been vetted by AAAS Meetings to avoid conflicts of interest. As a nonprofit organization, AAAS does not have the financial resources to fund travel expenses for the more than 1,000 program participants at each year’s meeting. However, one of the 24 disciplinary sections of AAAS may choose to authorize travel support for speakers, organizers, and discussants from their modest budgets. Funding is limited and typically provides partial support.

EXPLANATION OF ROLES

SPEAKER

Lightning Talks have only one speaker per proposal submission. If you are submitting on behalf of someone, you may include your email as the “Alternate email address” to receive a copy of all correspondence.

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION

You will be required to enter the following information for each individual (i.e. the organizer, if different, and the speaker):

• Name (confirm correct spelling)
• Email address (confirm address where messages can be received year-round)
• Job Title
• Status (Confirmed or Invited)
• Affiliation (primary institution; confirm correct spelling)
• Complete mailing address
• Telephone number

AAAS NEEDS THIS INFORMATION TO:

• Confirm participation.
• Communicate with speakers who apply for travel assistance.
• Or send speakers information about AAAS Annual Meeting Newsroom requests.

3. KEYWORDS

To significantly assist in finding the appropriate peer reviewers for your proposal, please select between three (3) and five (5) keywords that best describe your proposal. To improve matching, there is now only one write-in option. The full list of keywords is available here.

4. AAAS SECTIONS

Select up to three (3) AAAS Sections that are related to your proposal's disciplinary areas. After you have confirmed proposal submission, a link to your proposal will be sent to section officers for informational purposes. The full list of AAAS Sections is available here.

5. CONFIRMATION

Once you have entered all the required information for Steps 1-4, review the information you have submitted. If you need to make corrections, click on the appropriate step link in the left frame. Otherwise, click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page.

To log out, simply close your browser window. If you run into any problems, please email your questions or comments using the hyperlink for Technical Support that appears in the Scientific Session Control Panel.

Additional Note: Once a proposal has been accepted into the program, any change to the session topic or participants must be approved by AAAS.

PROPOSAL REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS: 10-MINUTE LIGHTNING TALKS

The following are considerations provided to reviewers. Submitters should carefully follow the instructions for submitting their proposals, which will be evaluated for completeness and clarity. Incomplete proposals will not be reviewed.

1. Evaluate the proposal in general:
• Is the information provided adequate for evaluation?
• Does the proposal include a video adequate for evaluating their speaking abilities?
2. Evaluate the topic:
• Is the topic timely?
• Is the topic too narrow for a multidisciplinary audience?
• Does it involve a novel idea, new and exciting developments in research, or interesting perspectives about an issue of broad disciplinary or interdisciplinary interest?
• Can the topic can be addressed adequately within the restricted timeframe of 10 minutes?
3. Evaluate the content:
• Are the submitter’s intended goals and messages clear?
• Do they describe a visual they plan to use?
• Do you think they are likely to successfully engage the audience with the content?
4. Evaluate the speaker:
• Can the presenter speak authoritatively on their topic, based on their research and speaking experience?
• Are they an effective communicator, based on the video provided?

Note to Reviewers: Lightning Talks are different from Scientific Sessions and thus are evaluated separately. Individual speakers give a concise, 10-minute talk on their “big idea” -- a novel, inspiring topic with broad relevance to the interdisciplinary AAAS audience -- and showcase excellent public communication skills, including the use of high-quality visuals, a focused message, and plain language.