Communications and outreach at the institute in 2024-2025

Communications and outreach activity this year has continued to highlight the institute’s growing reputation not only within vision science but across the wider scientific community.

The release of BSDB – The Fascinating World of Developmental Biology in late 2024, commissioned by The Company of Biologists, featured two of our researchers, Dr Rodrigo Young and our late colleague Professor Pete Coffey, whose pioneering contributions continue to shape the field. Professor Coffey also appeared in the BBC Ideas documentary Can (and should) we cure blindness?, a testament to the relevance and public interest in the research carried out at the institute and its impact on patients’ lives facilitated by our close partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital. 

In our operational communications, a major milestone was the completion of the migration of our website to Drupal 10, delivered in close collaboration with Faculty colleagues. This upgrade has greatly improved the integration of our digital presence as well as the user journey, as we removed or updated underperforming pages. We also launched a new SharePoint-based Intranet, creating a more intuitive and efficient hub for staff information. 

Externally, our social media presence continued to grow: a new BlueSky account was introduced, in line with our Faculty's direction and in response to academic demand; our LinkedIn followers increased by 21%, and our YouTube audience grew by 13%, with all inaugural lectures now available online.

Collaboration with the Faculty and the broader UCL communications teams, as well as with our partners’ communications teams, from Moorfields Eye Hospital, Moorfields Eye Charity, INSIGHT, and  NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), has been especially effective, enabling better coverage of our success stories. We worked to ensure the recognition of the institute’s research impact in Faculty-wide campaigns such as Brain Awareness Week and World Alzheimer’s Month.

This year, we strengthened our strategic communications, including the launch of our new Institute Strategy 2025-2030 online, and increased dissemination of activities related to our new centre for eye health, research and education (Oriel) in our monthly staff and students' newsletters. Looking ahead, the institute's strategic communications will be further expanded through our participation in the UCL200 bicentenary campaign as well as the engagement initiatives associated with our relocation to the new centre for eye health.

Some news stories from our institute's work promoted by UCL Media Relations, UCL's central Press Office Team