Bringing research to life through short animations

How can you describe your research in a single metaphor?
At DanStem, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 10 research group leaders met with a team from the Sci-Vi initiative at The Animation Workshop to co-produce short animations explaining stem cell research to a lay audience.

By Sia Søndergaard and Naomi Dayan

The initial instructions for the research leaders were to prepare a 30-second voice-over that summarizes each group’s research and to find a metaphor to symbolize the respective research.

“Animation as a communication tool saves both the researcher time in explaining and the audience time in comprehending! We believe that the power of video animation is a strong dissemination vehicle that bridges language barriers and communicates to those wanting to learn fast,” says Naomi Dayan, senior consultant at DanStem and executive producer on the films.

The research groups spent time with visual artist Cosimo Miorelli from the Sci-Vi community to go over their metaphor as an introduction to Miorelli’s work to develop storyboards. This rewarding experience reflects the importance of bringing science and visual storytelling experts together. Developing a common language was essential to co-produce animations for the benefit of science, and mostly for the benefit of the public.

The short animations – spanning from 1 to 1.5 minutes – will among other elements complement the 10 research groups’ webpages to comply with the new EU directive instructing EU public sector websites to communicate contents efficiently to people with disabilities.

The collaboration yielded a production of spectacular animations describing complicated biological cell mechanisms in an aesthetic, poetic, and illustrative manner.

The films range from a thriller movie about detecting social cell behavior, to the molecular mechanism of pancreatic cancer as an orchestral effort. Each story focuses on a scientific phenomenon told through a different metaphor.

With collaborations like these, the Sci-Vi team wishes to help convey information, knowledge, and important societal issues to the public, contributing to the creation of a basis for enlightened democracy. As a part of this goal, we need far more animation companies to discover the dissemination of science and the possibility of collaborations with knowledge institutions as both market potential and as an existing field to work in.

From ‘’Hematopoietic Stem Cells’’. Researcher: Bo Porse