Oban, 1 August 2018. A well-designed public engagement event funded by Natural Environmental Research Council, collaborating marine scientists and artists caught the attention of hundreds of people. As one of the 12 scientists involved in the training “bootcamp”, preparation and delivering process, Qing Fang from Aberdeen, UK shared this story with us: “Using the skills we gained through “bootcamp”, we designed workshops which ran during the delivering day aiming to engage the public into our research. As a microbiologist, I designed a workshop “Natural Factory” which was presented as an interactive jigsaw game and gave the participants a vivid experience of how the natural product is synthesized by micro-organisms. My workshop accommodated more than 100 people during the 2 days and was reported by local newspaper Oban times.” 

This is one of the entries of the microbiology community’s storytelling contest ‘Building Impact Brick by Brick’. Microbiologists can create a positive impact on society – and it’s as simple as building with Lego©: brick by brick. A march for science that changes a country’s conditions for scientists, a local event that helps parents avoid misuse of antibiotics, a citizen science project providing insights you would never see from a clinical setting. Each initiative, each story, each brick helps create awareness, influence policy and develop the conditions to develop and promote our microbiological knowledge, now and for future generations.