It has been a team effort, of course, since no less than 391 recent or current doctoral candidates have collaborated, three of them from the University of Almería, in taking a turn towards science with the #HiloTesis contest on Twitter; thus placing their contributions among the hottest topics of one of the most used social networks today. ‘Shared’ merit that has led to the success of this initiative because, from the organization itself, it has encouraged that each participating university reward its best students, beyond the fact that there have been 109 finalists, with three winners and three special mentions failed by a jury made up of vice-rectors of scientific culture.
In that sense, Almeria institution It has not hesitated to express its satisfaction both with the general results and with the participation of its three representatives, and in awarding the award between the Secretariat for Scientific Dissemination, the OTRI and the EIDUAL to its student with the highest score. She is Ana Sanchez, from the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UAL, which focused its thread on the world of microalgae, which he defined as “green, photosynthetic and sustainable super warriors”.
In his case, Sánchez has been ahead of his colleagues who were also selected by the UAL: Maria Dolores Haro, from the Department of Economics and Business, who spoke about how the grape transformed the life of part of the Almeria peasantry and laid the foundations for the current agricultural model. Y Savíns Doors, of the Department of Informatics, which linked Covid-19 or any other infectious disease with his branch of knowledge.
All three have done a great job on the #HiloTesis Twitter contest and they have added to the spectacular figures of 9,808 tweets registered with the hashtag #HiloTesis, which have touched the thirty million impressions. Figures that have been concentrated during the specific period of the contest, which It has occupied exactly two months, those of April and May, with 6,060 authors and more than ten and a half million effective reaches.
Resounding success of the Twitter #HiloTesis contest
Undoubtedly, the objective with which it was born can be considered surpassed the #HiloTesis Twitter contest, which was none other than “Promote the development of communication skills and scientific dissemination of researchers from Spanish universities”. This was explained in its launch from the Scientific Disclosure and Culture Network (RedDivulga) of the Sectorial CRUE – R + D + i, organizer of a event that has flooded Twitter with science and it has broken the dynamics of the most popular topics today in the popular social network, many of them charged with controversy.
In this way, constructive use has been achieved of the same and the University of Almería has congratulated the organization, the three winners, from Pompeu Fabra, Burgos and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria universities, and the three who have received special mention, from the universities of Córdoba, Internacional de Catalunya and Cantabria. In addition, it adheres to the assessment made by CRUE in this regard, where they point out that “the members of the evaluation committee have thanked the rest of the participants having made possible the first edition of the contest and ‘flooding’ Twitter with ‘close and affordable’ doctoral theses”. And it is thanks to them that science has approached society.
In fact, it should be noted that the jury that selected the three UAL participants, which was made up of the Secretariat for Scientific Dissemination, the General Directorate of Communication, the Office for the Transfer of Research Results (OTRI) and the International Doctoral School, has already valued the content of each thread, pointing out the “Use of a simple and informative language, but being strict and attractive”, as well as the creativity “Through the use of elements outside the text that enrich the content.”
Already in the national phase, putting in value the work carried out by researchers who are in training, a mass publication of all the participants in the Twitter #HiloTesis contest, between April 1 and 23, with threads of maximum 20 tweets in length. The first one obligatorily cited @RedDivulga and ended with ‘I open #HiloTesis’. This phase was followed by the selection of the finalists, evaluated by two members of the jury who, in no case, analyzed threads from their own institution.
