Communicating contentious geoscience issues and maintaining impartiality

Shale Gas exploration in the UK has been major and often controversial news in the British media over the last 2 years. The British Geological Survey (BGS) has been an integral part of this story as the UK Governments independent and impartial advisor on geosciences. BGS has been involved in writing policy on fracking and induced earthquakes as well as researching potential quantities of shale gas in the UK and also researching natural methane levels in groundwater before large scale fracking activities begin. Shale Gas in the UK, as in the US and Europe has caused much controversy and as a result has many pro and anti fracking campaigns. The challenge for BGS has been to deliver front line science, whilst maintaining complete impartiality on the subject. The BGS communications team developed a strategy over this period to ensure that our message was clear and strong. This involved working closely with the scientists involved to formulate key messages that could delivered through controlled statements on the BGS webpages, press releases, at press conferences as well as on broadcast and print media. Our scientists were media trained during this time to ensure that they stayed en message and wouldn't be caught by the press or opponents of fracking into making statements that could have been used to either scare up the position or give the antagonist room to cast doubt on our impartiality. This strategy proved highly successful and BGS managed to communicate the facts, remain impartial whilst avoiding attempts to undermine the potential for Shale gas exploitation in the UK. The success of this communication strategy was due to the cooperation of the scientists, a clear strategy from the communications team and the unequivocal support of the senior executive at BGS. This abstract will conclude how the BGS has developed its communication strategy to be more streamlined and open. BGS must allow it's scientists to talk to the media about the science that they do. Much of the research that we do is paid for by the British taxpayer and it's our obligation to make sure we communicate what we're doing and why we're doing it to the public in a transparent and easy to understand way whilst ensuring that we maintain our reputation for being a trusted, independent and impartial source of expert advice.