Blog post
Communication in ESCORT: What we have built, what we have learned, and what comes next
30 apr, 2026
by Massive Dynamic Sweden
Good communication is at the heart of any successful EU project. For ESCORT, it’s not just about visibility, it’s about making sure that what we’re building actually reaches the people who can use it effectively, understand it, and benefit from it. While we are a research focused project, our aim is to create tangible outputs that can be readily applied and scaled with more refinement to improve the medical community, rather than just be seen as research outputs.
Over the past two years, we’ve focused on putting the foundations in place: creating a clear project identity, setting up our channels, and making sure we can communicate consistently across a large and diverse consortium. As we move closer to releasing key tools and starting pilot activities, our communication efforts are evolving alongside the project in our sprint towards the finish line in December.
From the Basics to an Established Community
One of the first priorities was to establish ESCORT’s online presence. The project website acts as our central hub, where anyone can find out what ESCORT is about and follow our progress. Alongside this, our social media channels have been active each week to help us stay visible, share updates, and connect with a wider audience.
Keeping these channels active and meaningful takes ongoing effort. Content needs to be timely, relevant, and aligned across partners, whether highlighting ongoing or upcoming activities, or the people in our project through the Partner Spotlight Series we have been running. Since ESCORT involves multiple organisations, a big part of the work has been coordinating inputs, collecting updates, shaping them into clear messages, and ensuring everything reflects the project consistently while keeping our community engaged and up-to-date with the diverse activities of our project.
Another key focus has been making sure ESCORT is present where it matters. Conferences and events have given us opportunities to introduce the project, connect with stakeholders, and position ESCORT within the wider European health and innovation landscape.
We’ve also organised webinars to create more direct and interactive engagement. These have been useful not just for sharing information, but for opening up conversations and getting feedback.
Collaboration with sister projects has been equally important. By working with other EU initiatives in similar areas, we’ve been able to amplify our reach, align messages, and contribute to a broader, more connected ecosystem. It’s a reminder that communication in EU projects doesn’t happen in isolation.
In combination over the last two and a half years, we have established a sound community of scientists, medical professionals, tech partners, many of whom not only consume our media content, but participate in our online events, and will be a part of our pilot testing and future activities. We are proud of the engagement we have cultivated and the consistent feedback and responses we get as the project moves towards its most exciting period.
What we’ve learned so far
That all being said, a few key lessons have already emerged, and communicating as a project in this space isn't always a straight-line experience.
First, communication in a project like ESCORT is not just about outputs, it’s about coordination and ensuring we reach those most relevant, especially as projects like this often run into challenges due to the specificity of our work. While we output content designed for a wide audience, we also focus on generating outputs and targeting efforts towards those acutely impacted by our innovations, who are likely to be excited about our innovations, which can be easier said than done.
Second, digital tools are powerful, but they only work if they’re used consistently. A website or social media account is not enough on its own, it needs regular, meaningful content to stay relevant that can't just be generic, it needs to be to targeted and relevant to our tailored audience. In a space as big as ours in medical technologies, it can be a challenge to stand out, while also maintaining a high level of quality, but as the project has developed, we have adapted to see more success with new strategies.
And third, communication needs to evolve with the project. Early on, the focus is on awareness. Over time, it shifts towards engagement, understanding, and ultimately uptake. While these are factors we knew from the project's start, actively implementing these adaptations in strategy in time with things like the release of project tools, major events, and international conferences, need to be flexible yet pronounced. There is a fluidity to these communication evolutions, and striking that balance requires constant awareness, feedback and adjustment.
What’s next: training and pilot readiness
As ESCORT moves into its next phase, communication is becoming more closely linked to the project’s technical work.
A major upcoming focus is the organisation of training activities around ESCORT’s core tools and solutions. These sessions will help stakeholders understand what the project has developed and how it can be used in practice. This is an important step as we move from talking about the project to actively supporting its use.
At the same time, we’re preparing for pilot activities. Communication will continue to play a key role here: making sure the right people are informed, engaged, and ready to participate. It will also help us share what we learn from these pilots as they happen, and the feedback collected from our pilot activities will shape many of the adaptations and adjustments needed to ensure our tools are as refined as possible by the project's end.
This phase requires a shift in how we communicate. It’s no longer just about visibility, it’s about clarity, usability, and relevance for ourselves and for our project end-users. We need to make sure that complex technical solutions are accessible and meaningful to different audiences, while ensuring we get feedback in time for our development teams to apply what we have learned.
Looking Towards the End
ESCORT’s experience so far shows how communication in these projects is never a side activity, and is instead an integral part of delivering impact. It connects the work happening inside the project with the people and systems it’s meant to support, so that both sides can benefit.
As we move into training and pilot implementation, the focus will be on making that connection stronger: turning information into understanding, and understanding into real-world use, and we look forward to keeping you informed and updated as we move into our next phase.