The Final Competition of Fame Lab Serbia

Science pop Idols

"We are looking for people who have scientific stars in their eyes, people who can present an entertaining, original and exciting talk that is scientifically accurate but appealing to a non-scientific audience" - Kathy Sykes, Cheltenham Science Festival Director, UK


By MARKO ANDREJIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


The final competition of the Fame Lab Serbia, the project organized by British Council, in cooperation with the Ministery of Science and RTS (Serbian Broadcasting Company) was held on April 5 in Bitef Teatar, Belgrade. Vladimir Živković is the winner and he will represent Serbia in the Science Festival in Cheltenham, Great Britain from June 6th till 10th.

FameLab is an initiative of the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK and its aim is to encourage young scientists (18 to 35 years old) to inspire and excite public imagination with a vision of science in the 21st century. The competition is searching for the new faces of Science who will be able to develop their ideas and presentation skills for a TV audience. The model is familiar from TV programmes like Pop Idol and Mega Star - one has just 3 minutes to prove themselves to a panel of expert judges, with only the best going forward to the next round, and the talk should be entertaining and original, scientifically accurate but also engaging to a non-scientific audience.

Beautiful Science

British Council launched FameLab, the first edition of the contest going international in Serbia and other eight countries in South-East Europe (Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Romania and Turkey) through the British Council network and its local partners.

In the final evening, ten people had three minutes each to present their scientific thesis in an interesting and popular way. The jury consisted of three experts: scientist, in charge of the contents of presentation, its scientific validity, and the whole concept - that was professor Petar Jovančić from the Belgrade university; journalist Gorica Nešović was looking for their presentation possibilities, form and communication with public; for the whole impression, charisma, scene acting there was actress Jelena Ilić. Young scientists from different sections - medicine, physics, chemistry, biology took part in the project. This project offered them an opportunity to get out of their laboratories and to bring science into masses but in a popular and understandable way.

FameLab is one component of the Beautiful Science Regional Project, a new British Council initiative - linking science, education and the arts - which ultimately seeks to inspire young people to consider a career in science and encourage young scientists to communicate with the wider public, in an open, comprehensive, inspired and interactive way. The project is implemented by the British Council in 9 countries in South East Europe region: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Romania, Serbia and Turkey and the UK.

Linking science, education and the arts

The other two components are: Visualise' science - theatre show by the UK company Science Made Simple which reinforces the importance of science as part of popular culture and a series of public debates on scientific and social/citizenship issues commissioned to UK scientist and media fellow Jim Al-Khalili with the assistance of local science communicators.

All nine winners from South-Eastern Europe will attend the Cheltenham Science Festival 2007 in the UK with expenditures fully paid by the British Council.