We’re hiring an Editor!

EJR-Quartz has an immediate opening for a mother-tongue English writer/editor able to present scientific topics in a style accessible for the general public both in web articles and on social media. The position is full-time for EJR-Quartz under contract to the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) based in Reading, UK.

ECMWF has been entrusted by the European Commission to run the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Service (CAMS). Working on-site with the ECMWF Copernicus Communications Department, the scientific editor will write and edit content on relevant topics for the C3S and CAMS websites, as well as the ECMWF Copernicus social media channels. The editor will also be responsible for planning, implementing, and managing the website and social media content.

  • The successful candidate will have:
  • Mother-tongue English
  • An Honours degree in science, preferably in Meteorology or Climate/Atmospheric research
  • Minimum of 3 years’ experience in writing and editing
  • Excellent social media skills, including analysis and statistics
  • Experience with content management systems

Closing date: 23 July 2018, position to start as soon as possible.

To find out more about us: https://www.ejr-quartz.com
If you think this post is for you, tell us why you’d like to join our team. Please send your CV and references to: vacancy@ejr-quartz.com

Science communication: from website to workshop

Communication is our area of expertise, and we have an entire team of experts dedicated to communicating for our clients, but are we as good at talking about what we do as a company?

Giving a 15-minute presentation to the general public in Leiden, the Netherlands was my chance to find out!

The office building that we share with other teams of communicators and graphics designers celebrated its 10th anniversary last week, and all of the companies located here were invited to give a small presentation about their work.

With help from my colleagues, I decided to put together a short video, showcasing some of the footage that EJR-Quartz has produced for our clients over the years. I was amazed at the range of projects our team has been involved with. The video soon  became a two-minute homage to the brilliant work of our clients, work that we are proud to support.

We transformed our office into a veritable ‘exhibition’ with snacks and entertainment, and ESA kindly lent us  Dutch astronaut André Kuijpers (‘flat André’) to welcome visitors to  our stand. As the doors opened to our building I felt some apprehension, but this soon disappeared as I started my presentation and visitors began to stop and listen, and seemed keen to find out more.

Watch the video and let us know what you think here in the comments or on Twitter @ejrquartz.

EJR-Quartz in Race for the Cure!

The Rome edition of the world’s biggest event in support of breast cancer took place on Sunday 20 May, and EJR-Quartz staff were there to show their support. Organised by the Susan G. Komen Association, funds raised by the event go towards cancer awareness and breast cancer prevention programmes.

A record-breaking 70,000 people took part in the 5 km race this year, the course taking participants through the beautiful historic centre of Rome, for once free of traffic. From EJR-Quartz Erica Rolfe, Maria Bennett, Kelsea Brennan-Wessels Marcello Cappelletti completed the race. With funds raised through the Race for the Cure since 2000, Komen Italia has raised around 3 million euros and has set up over 421 projects and associations in the fight against breast cancer. It’s not too late to join, you can still donate to Race for the Cure online: http://www.raceroma.it/fai-una-donazione.php

Internal Communications Editor at ESTEC

EJR-Quartz has an immediate opening for a mother-tongue English writer/editor able to present scientific and technical topics in an accessible way. This is a full-time position for EJR-Quartz under contract to the European Space Agency, based on site at ESA/ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

The Internal Communications Unit of the ESA Communications Department has been established to strengthen ESA internal communications, as described in the Agency’s three-year communications plan.

As part of the new internal communications strategy, a new ‘One ESA’ Intranet was launched this month, where all activities of the Agency are represented. To support the enhanced internal communications activities and ensure publishing on One ESA, additional editorial and communications support is required.

Under instruction from the Head of Internal Communications, and reporting to the Internal Communications Officer, the editor will support internal communications activities at ESTEC, ECSAT and smaller ESA sites. Tasks include writing and editing in mother-tongue English, on a range of topics of interest to the ESTEC audience. The editor will also support other internal communications activities at ESTEC as required.

Tasks include:

  • Ensure the dissemination of corporate communications messages to an internal audience at Establishment level
  • Actively seek out topics of interest to the internal audience
  • Write and edit articles and background content for the new ESA Intranet on ESTEC, ECSAT and other topics, in mother-tongue English
  • Conduct interviews in written or video format
  • Research images and ensure accurate captions
  • Build and maintain new sections of the ESA Intranet
  • Ensure that all material written is in accordance with ESA editorial house style
  • Ensure that all material has been approved by the relevant ESA authority according to agreed approval processes
  • Support other internal communications campaigns and events as required
  • Contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the activities, reporting Key Performance Indicators

The successful candidate will have:

  • Mother-tongue English
  • An Honours degree in science, engineering or communications/journalism
  • Minimum of 2 years’ experience in writing and editing
  • Demonstrable experience in presenting scientific and technical subjects in a style accessible for general public
  • Familiarity with space topics an advantage
  • Experience of scripting and producing videos

Contractual matters

The successful candidate will be employed directly by EJR-Quartz BV, under contract to ESA. Candidates must be eligible to live and work in The Netherlands. This is a one-year contract, with possibility of renewal. The start date is 1 June.

Closing date: 27 April 2018

Learn more about our company and meet the team at: www.ejr-quartz.com
If you think this job is for you, tell us why you’d like to join our team. Please send your cover letter, CV and references to: vacancy@ejr-quartz.com

Editor for European Astronaut Centre

EJR-Quartz has an immediate opening for a mother-tongue English writer/editor able to present scientific and technical topics in a style accessible for general public. The position is full-time for EJR-Quartz under contract to the European Space Agency, based on site at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne.

The Communications team at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) promotes Human and Robotic Exploration of space using a range of platforms, ranging from digital, social and traditional media to events. It also coordinates all public outreach activities regarding ESA astronauts and their missions. The EAC Communication Team in Cologne, Germany, requires writing, editing and digital communications services.

 Tasks

Reporting to the EAC Communication Officer, within the News and Content Office, the editor will write, edit and publish articles and other text specific to EAC activities in mother-tongue English for the ESA online channels. This may include script-writing and editorial support for video clips, animations and images/graphics for social media. Tasks include:

  • Write and edit content in English on topics relevant to EAC
  • Managing social media campaigns and channels, on EAC and astronaut activities
  • Ensure that all content published is in English and compliant with ESA editorial guidelines and agreed approval processes
  • Ensure content publishing on the ESA online channels
  • Provide community management support for EAC and astronauts asrequired, as well as participation in ESA social media events
  • Support the EAC communications officer in executing communications plans and campaigns, and provide input to communications plans as required
  • Liaise closely with the Exploration Domain communications team as well as the digital publishing team to ensure coherence and maximum visibility of the activities

The successful candidate will have:

  • Mother-tongue English
  • An Honours degree in science, engineering or communications/journalism
  • Minimum of 3 years’ experience in writing and editing
  • Demonstrable experience in presenting scientific and technical subjects in a style accessible for general public
  • Experience of planning and running social media/digital campaigns
  • Familiarity with space topics an advantage
  • Experience scripting and producing video

 Contractual matters

The successful candidate will be employed directly by EJR-Quartz BV, under contract to ESA. Candidates must be eligible to live and work in Germany. This is a one-year contract, with possibility of renewal. The start date is 11 June.

Closing date: 27 April 2018

Learn more about our company and meet the team at: www.ejr-quartz.com

If you think this is for you, tell us why you’d like to join our team. Please send your cover letter, CV and references to: vacancy@ejr-quartz.com

 

We’re hiring: Applications Editor

EJR-Quartz has an immediate opening for a mother-tongue English writer/editor able to present scientific and technical topics in a style accessible for general public. The position is full-time for EJR-Quartz under contract to the European Space Agency, based on site at ESA’s Earth Observation Centre in Frascati, Italy.

ESA’s Applications domain includes the Directorates of Earth Observation, Navigation and Telecommunications. Working within the News and Content Office of the Communication Department, the Applications Editor will write and edit content on relevant topics for ESA’s online channels.

The successful candidate will have:

  • Mother-tongue English
  • An Honours degree in science, engineering or communications/journalism
  • Minimum of 3 years’ experience in writing and editing
  • Demonstrable experience in presenting scientific and technical subjects in a style accessible for general public
  • Familiarity with Earth Observation, Navigation and Telecommunications topics an advantage
  • Experience scripting and producing video, including live interview and presenting

Tasks

Working under the ‘Application Domain Communication officer’ within the “News and contents office” the Application domain editor will write, edit and publish articles and other text specific to Applications in mother-tongue English for the ESA Portal, online and hardcopy publications, as well as video, web-TV productions, exhibitions and other media. This will include script-writing and production support for video clips, animations and images/graphics for social media. This may also include on-camera presentation and interviews.

The Applications editor will:

  • Support the DCO in developing content and ensure the timely publication of articles on the ESA Portal;
  • Ensure coordination of content with scientists and other external and internal experts to ensure that content and messages passed are correct and coherent;
  • Take care of internal coordination and approvals together with the DCO or the respective point of contact within the communication team and/or the relevant directorate(s);
  • Integrate, structure and build the articles in the ESA content management system;
  • Contribute to the writing and editing of text required for other products for other media, including hardcopy publications, videos, blogs, exhibition panels, posters and brochures. This shall be done in close cooperation with the responsible production coordinator;
  • Prepare storyboards for video production of the images of the week and other in-house video productions;
  • Conduct interviews and other relevant video production for ESA’s video channel(s) in close coordination with the “video and visual production unit”;
  • Research images and their content in order to write accurate captions;
  • Ensure that all material is written according to with the ESA editorial house style;
  • Ensure that all material has been approved by the relevant ESA authority according to agreed approval processes;
  • Liaise with the relevant production and ESA social media teams for dissemination;
  • Participate in ESA publishing/editorial meetings as required.

Contractual matters

The successful candidate will be employed directly by EJR-Quartz srl, under contract to ESA. An Italian residence and work permit is obligatory. This is a nine-month contract, with possibility of renewal. The start date is 1 April.

Closing date Applications Editor: 19 March 2018

Learn more about our company and meet the team at: www.ejr-quartz.com

If you think this is for you, tell us why you’d like to join our team. Please send your cover letter, CV and references to: vacancy@ejr-quartz.com

 

 

 

 

We’re hiring: Space Situational Awareness Editor

EJR-Quartz has an opening for a native-level English communication professional who thrives on crafting raw facts into compelling content and information into news. You will work on site at the European Space Agency’s ESOC Establishment in Darmstadt, Germany, to provide editorial and communication support to ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Programme, boosting awareness among general public and specialised audiences of key topics and themes including space safety and Space4.0. The SSA editor function is a half-time position, but there is an option to combine with other EJR-Quartz projects.

The job

A passionate storyteller, you will work as part of an international team to produce and publish news and multimedia content aimed at general audiences via online channels including the ESA website and social media channels, and aimed at specialised audiences via other channels including online, print and exhibitions.

Reporting to the Communication Officer, the SSA Editor is responsible for researching, writing, editing and publishing articles and background information in mother-tongue English and in styles accessible to general as well as specialist audiences. He/she will also provide titles, captions, scripts and storyboards for multimedia content and coordinate the production of visual material.

Tasks include:

  • Actively seek out, write, edit and publish in flawless English newsworthy information of interest to the general public focussing on ESA’s SSA Programme and space safety activities, including news stories, articles, blog posts, social media updates, printed text, captions, subtitles and headlines
  • Plan, curate and update the SSA and related sections of the ESA website on a regular schedule using the approved content management system
  • Coordinate the production of multimedia content including video, animations and graphics; plan, write, edit and finalise storyboards, scripts, captions and titles; manage production schedules and approvals; interface with video and audio technical teams, editors and customers; liaise with designers, handle drafts at all stages and ensure final product quality and publishing
  • Ensure compliance of all text and other content to ESA house styles, graphic styles, CVI and editorial guidelines
  • Provide periodic support for content, news and information at and related to technical conferences, workshops or major expert visitor groups, including SpaceOps, Space Debris Conference, etc.
  • Provide communication support during normal work hours as well as extended hours, both on site and in other locations, during special events such as launch or manoeuvres
  • Travel, typically, two to five times per year

Requirements

The requirement is for a native-level English editor, with a Masters-level degree in science, engineering or communications/journalism/media, with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in writing and editing on complex topics related to space policy, programmes, engineering and science for web/online channels and a wide range of audiences. Significant experience in multimedia production, social media and basic concepts of space science are also required. German residency and work permission are obligatory.

Contractual matters

The successful candidate must have residency and work permission for Germany, and will be employed by EJR-Quartz, under contract to ESA. This is a nine-month position, with possibility of renewal. The start date is as soon as possible. The position at ESOC is a half-time position, with an option to combine with other EJR-Quartz projects.

Closing date SSA Editor: 22 March 2018

 

Learn more about our company and meet the team at: www.ejr-quartz.com

If you think this is for you, tell us why you’d like to join our team. Please send your cover letter, CV and references to: vacancy@ejr-quartz.com

Experienced Print Editor, Italy

 

This position is now closed. Thank you for applying!

EJR-Quartz has an opening for a mother-tongue English editor experienced in writing for print and able to present scientific and technical topics in a style accessible for general public. The position is full-time for EJR-Quartz under contract to the European Space Agency, onsite at ESA ESRIN in Frascati, Italy, working within ESA’s Print Media and Merchandising Unit.

 ESA’s Print Media and Merchandising Unit will define, develop and maintain a catalogue of print and non-digital media to be produced by ESA to reach the general public.

Tasks

Reporting to the Head of the Print Media and Merchandising Unit, the Print Editor is responsible for writing and editorial all material for the products produced by the Unit, in mother-tongue English and in a style accessible to a general public audience. Tasks include:

  • Support the Head of the Print Unit in defining and developing the catalogue of print and non-digital media to be produced by ESA
  • Writing and editing of all material required for ESA’s printed productions, in mother-tongue English
  • Oversee creation and production of print publications from conception to distribution: managing the schedule and approvals, interfacing with authors and customers, editing/rewriting content, liaising with designers, handling proofs at all stages (from author proofs to final print proofs), and liaising on printing and distribution.
  • Research images and write accurate captions for all printed products
  • Ensure that all material written is in according with ESA editorial house style
  • Ensure that all material has been approved by the relevant ESA authority according to agreed approval processes
  • Liaise with graphics to ensure appropriate layout
  • Participate in Print Production Unit meetings as required

Requirements

The requirement is for a mother-tongue English editor, with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in writing and editing for print. Candidates must have experience in presenting scientific and technical subjects in style accessible for the general public. An Italian residence and work permit is obligatory.

Skills:

  • Mother-tongue English
  • Minimum of 3 years’ experience in writing and editing for print publications
  • Demonstrable experience in presenting scientific and technical subjects in a style accessible for general public
  • An Honours degree in science, engineering or communications/journalism
  • Familiarity with InDesign and similar tools an advantage
  • Experience in working for an international organisation is an advantage

Contractual matters

The successful candidate will be employed directly by EJR-Quartz srl, under contract to ESA. This is a one-year contract, with possibility of renewal. The start date is as soon as possible.

Closing date: 15 January 2018

Learn more about our company and meet the team at: www.ejr-quartz.com

If you think this is for you, tell us why you’d like to join our team. Please send your CV and references to: vacancy@ejr-quartz.com

 

Back to the lab again: The case for team building activities

It’s said that if you stand in front of a mirror in a dark, empty room and say the words ‘team-building activity’ out loud three times, you can hear your colleagues groan from miles away.

I can’t promise that the small group tasked with creating said activity didn’t groan either. But being a creative, well-rounded team, I think we came up with a memorable activity, sure to be remembered for years to come. Here’s how we did it and why you should too.

Context

Our recent company workshop in Athens had a few goals, among them to:

When the whole team gets together. Credit: SJM Photography

1) Get team members from different locations to work together.

With folks in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and the UK, the vast majority of us don’t see each other every day. There’s little opportunity grab a coffee together across the company and not all projects cross paths.

2) Reconsider what we do (communications, broadly speaking) from a different point of view.

Communications is still keeping up with advancements in technology. Social media is the main source of news and entertainment for the general public. And where once text was the novelty – be it in 140 characters or longer – visual media is quickly taking over.

Of course, many factors go into what type of medium and platform you use. And that’s precisely what we wanted to explore. In mulling all this over, it occurred to us that while we were in a brainstorming lab, of sorts, why not get the whole team in there with us?

It’s alive!

The task at the heart of the Content Lab was simple: Take a story and cast it in different ways using different tools for different audiences.

We split the group into 4 teams and played three rounds of our ‘game’. In each round, we presented the teams with the same news story. Each team then picked out a card from the MEDIA pile (comic, video, infographic, etc) and from the PLATFORM pile (YouTube, interactive website, Twitter, Facebook, etc). The objective was to rework the news story for their media type and platform and present their product.

Brainstorming. Credit: SJM Photography

 

For a simple game, the results were interestingly complex.

In one round, two teams pulled the same media card (infographics) but for different platforms (Facebook vs. general website). Despite working with the same material, the teams came up with very different products.

In the other two rounds, some teams selected ‘wildcards’ like designing a meme campaign and an audio product. It was a chance to get creative, but that isn’t always easy, as we learned.

Presenting ideas. Credit: SJM Photography

Takeaways

Across all teams and scenarios, here were some takeaways:

  • Diversity is a plus: Workshopping ideas with people of different ages, experience, and background is never a bad thing. After all, a ‘general audience’ is a mix of those three factors.
  • Content needs the right platform: Knowing your audience also means knowing what platform to use to best reach them. This in turn affects your tone, length, budget, the project overall. This point was very clearly made with the infographic example above.
  • There is a right and a wrong way: Yes, even in the seemingly lawless world of social media. Like any language or tool, social media has its own rules and conventions. If aiming to use effective testimonials, for instance, you need to get the right people on board and well before a campaign launches. Spontaneity on social media still takes planning! Doing it wrong means doing it at your own peril.
  • Keep it need-to-know: When focussing on audience and platform, don’t forget your actual content. Keep your call-to-action in mind and lead your audience to it by including relevant info only.
  • Memes are hard: But fun and well worth the effort, if done right! Remember to use them like salt – a little here and there to add flavour.

It was an intense and slightly sweaty 3 hours, full of laughter, frustration, and a mess load of ideas. But everyone worked hard, together, and left inspired. And there’s nothing like an energized team ready to tackle anything.

Tips

Here are some tips on planning and organizing a team-building activity that we found made the Content Lab a success. We’d love to hear about your experiences as well. Good luck!

  • Assign teams: People will naturally gravitate to those they know. But when the goal is to create a spirit of cooperation and exchange among people who don’t normally work together, it’s important that you preselect those teams.
  • Give examples: When your activity time is limited, there’s little room for trial-and-error. Instead, prime the creative pump with examples. Before we kicked off the game, we presented some samples of outside-the-box comms campaigns to get everyone in that frame of mind. After explaining the rules of the game, we ‘played’ a quick example round to show rather than just tell.
  • Less really is more: Keep it simple, from details to props to presentations. The topics we chose for each round were accessible, the game rules short and sweet. Too many details create confusion and complication.
  • It’s the little things that count: Small challenges like coming up with a team name in 30 seconds go a long way to building comradery and team spirit, especially when there’s a countdown clock!

We’re Hiring: Financial Administrator

UPDATE: We are no longer taking applications for this position. 

EJR-Quartz is looking for a dedicated full-time Financial Administrator to work closely with the team to manage EJR-Quartz’s financial administration and to assist in the company’s administrative support and day-to-day activities. The position is in the EJR-Quartz’s headquarters in Leiden, working in close cooperation with the Office Manager.

We are a small company specialising in Science Communication. Our international team are editors, journalists, communication specialists, social media experts and content managers, with the core belief that content matters. Our main clients are the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Space Agency (DLR). Our 32 staff are based in The Netherlands, Italy, Germany and the UK. We are offering the chance to work within a small, friendly team and a supportive and familial working environment at our Head Office in Leiden.

Responsibilities:
•Provide accurate and efficient support to management and other budget holders with managing office finances – petty cash, invoice processing, invoice raising, credit card expenditure, and finance queries.
•To assist in office administration, answering queries on the phone and via email, and general administration when the Office Manager is absent.

Requirements:
•Degree-level qualification in financial administration
•At least one year of experience in financial administration
•Excellent organisational skills and demonstrable attention to detail
•Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate effectively and tactfully with our international clients and to work within a close-knit team
•Able to work under pressure under own initiative and to prioritise own workload
•Understanding the importance of discretion and confidentiality
•Strong skills with standard office tools, including Excel and Word
•Familiarity with bookkeeping and invoicing software (Twinfield, esa-p)
•Fluent English is essential and Dutch and/or German would be a plus

Contractual matters
The position is full time or near full-time (minimum 36 hrs/week), based at our office in the centre of Leiden, The Netherlands.

Start date: 1 December 2017, but sooner preferred. The initial contract with EJR-Quartz would be for 1 year, with a possibility of renewal and a long-term position.

If you think you would fit with our team, tell us why. Send your application to: vacancy@ejr-quartz.com

Cradling change in Athens

What’s the hardest part about planning a company workshop when your team is scattered across Europe, from Netherlands, UK, and Germany to Italy? As it turns out, it’s deciding on a location that isn’t any one of those countries.

Hello, Greece! EJR-Quartz headed to Athens for a workshop that took stock of how far we’ve come as a company and the changing tides of digital communications.

Since Lisbon

 Since the last company workshop in Lisbon 2013, EJR-Quartz has grown. Nine new team members, new clients, and new projects for existing clients have kept us on our toes.

We’ve helped ESA and DLR land on a comet. We’ve been to Mars with ESA and covered the launch of 5 Copernicus Sentinels; not to mention supporting hundreds of live events, written more 10 000 article and posting hundreds of thousands of social media updates. We have expanded our editorial support for DLR, not only publishing 12 magazines but managing thousands of translations and winning a social media award for the Philae campaign. We’ve been to the bottom of the ocean with DexROV, the EU Horizon 2020-funded autonomous subsea robot and welcomed new client ECMWF Copernicus Services.

We’ve continued to grow and adapt to the times and the needs of our clients. But to make sure we’re still ahead of the curve, we went back to “the lab” to test our adaptability and teamwork.

Content Lab

Every workshop boasts a team-building activity that everyone privately hopes won’t bore the socks off them. The Content Lab, a team-building activity designed to get everyone thinking outside the box, did just the opposite.

Combining gameshow thrills like wildcards and countdown clocks with inspiring questions and real world scenarios, our team got creative, worked better together and left inspired. We call that a win-win!

Stay tuned for more on Content Lab and how to design an effective team building activity.

 

But we didn’t spend all day indoors brain-storming. The best team building usually happens after hours. With local knowledge from spacetweep friends Angie and Efimia, we enjoyed dinner at some of Athens’ hot spots and finished with a tour of the Acropolis, where we managed a team photo of mythic proportions.

Thank you, Athens! We look forward to coming back very soon.

New satellite joining the Sentinel family

Preparations underway for the Sentinel-5P launch event at ESTEC, Noordwijk.

Another day, another Sentinel launch: the latest to join the EU’s Copernicus programme for Earth Observation is Sentinel-5P, launching on 13 October from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands is hosting a live launch event and of course, we’ll be there!

Sentinel-5P (‘P’ for ‘Precursor’) is the first Sentinel satellite dedicated to monitoring the atmosphere for Europe’s Copernicus programme. It features the unique Tropomi instrument that maps trace gases and will provide a wealth of information on air quality . Read more about the satellite here.

As part of the communications team, EJR-Quartz is covering the event via the main ESA portal and social media. The event line-up features mission experts discussing the satellite’s technical specs and overall mission objective as well as live feeds from the launchpad in Russia as well as ESA mission control in Darmstadt.

Join us via social media. We’re tweeting from @esa, @ESA_EO and @esaoperations; Follow along also on Instagram @esa_earth and Facebook.

Tune in to the live stream from 08:30 GMT (10:30 CEST) here.