Outreach Meetings & Stakeholder Dialogues
Purpose and Scope
As part of POSEIDON’s responsible research and innovation framework, our team organized multiple outreach meetings and dialogues with key societal stakeholders—educators, community representatives, NGOs, and local governance bodies. The aim was to bridge the gap between laboratory innovation and real-world application. These interactions helped us validate assumptions, refine our deployment strategy, and ensure that our design remained socially grounded and environmentally sustainable.
Grounded engagement ensures that every design iteration reflects the lived experiences and constraints of those most affected by water contamination.
Dialogue-driven design—iterating with teachers, community leaders, and NGOs to ensure real-world adaptability and inclusivity.
Key Stakeholder Interactions
Institutional and Campus Consultations
Our initial series of meetings took place within IISER Berhampur, where we engaged with faculty members and laboratory safety officers to understand the institutional frameworks around biosafety, waste disposal, and outreach ethics. Discussions emphasized that a community-focused deployment model must also align with regulatory safety practices. Faculty insights prompted us to document a full bead life-cycle plan—covering synthesis, usage, regeneration, and safe post-use disposal—to ensure that every deployment maintains scientific and environmental integrity.
- Develop clear end-of-life protocols for beads and filters.
- Maintain an open-access database for safety and regeneration SOPs.
- Coordinate periodic safety audits before field-scale implementation.
School-Level Meetings
Engaging with local schools helped us understand how awareness and education could integrate into POSEIDON’s mission. Teachers expressed enthusiasm for hands-on demonstrations that make water contamination visible and relatable. We proposed installing gravity-based prototype units in schools, supported by A3 visual SOP posters for teachers and students. Teachers emphasized the importance of using multilingual communication—English, Hindi, and Odia—to reach diverse student backgrounds effectively.
- Visual instructions outperform text-based manuals.
- Maintenance tasks should be minimal and manageable within existing routines.
- Students respond well to visual and experimental learning about clean water.
Village Panchayat Discussions
Our dialogues with village panchayats and local communities formed a crucial bridge between design and deployment. Community leaders helped us identify the logistical and financial challenges of ensuring safe water access. They emphasized that shared purification kiosks could be more feasible than household units in certain villages. We co-developed a cost-sharing model where community members contribute collectively toward installation and minor maintenance, ensuring a sense of ownership and responsibility.
Shared kiosks and cost-sharing models enhance collective responsibility and local ownership of clean water systems.
POSEIDON integrates social financing and decentralized upkeep into its deployment roadmap.
NGO and Health Worker Consultations
Meetings with NGOs and local healthcare workers provided valuable insights into the social and medical dimensions of metal contamination. Health professionals described rising cases of chronic ailments linked to polluted water, reinforcing our mission’s urgency. We learned that pairing our technological intervention with public health storytelling—explaining how metals like chromium or mercury cause specific symptoms—could drastically improve awareness and preventive behavior.
- Develop simple leaflets mapping metal contaminants to related health symptoms.
- Include referral and reporting guidelines for suspected contamination cases.
- Partner with NGOs for rural awareness campaigns and screening camps.
Campus Clubs and Student Engagement
We also collaborated with student clubs and outreach societies within IISER Berhampur to amplify awareness through creative media. Using theatrical demonstrations and skits, we connected science with storytelling—portraying the invisible danger of heavy metals through relatable narratives. These activities not only strengthened public engagement but also reinforced the ethical responsibility of scientific communication—to inform without fearmongering, and to empower with knowledge.
Creative formats like skits and workshops connect science with empathy, fostering scientific temper and awareness.
By empowering students and teachers, outreach becomes a multiplier of sustainability literacy and behavioral change.
Collective Outcomes
These outreach dialogues shaped how POSEIDON evolved from a lab prototype to a socially integrated solution. Key outcomes include:
- Simplified cartridge design suitable for decentralized, low-resource contexts.
- Clear maintenance and regeneration protocols for community operators.
- Educational modules for schools and awareness camps.
- Translation of outreach materials into regional languages.
- Strengthened collaboration between academic, civic, and community networks.
- Conduct pilot installations in selected schools and villages.
- Document community training sessions and operational performance.
- Continue feedback cycles with NGOs, panchayats, and local institutions.
Linking Forward
Our outreach framework now forms a cornerstone for broader collaborations described in partnerships and humanpractices. It reflects the philosophy that technology must emerge from dialogue—not isolation—and that lasting solutions grow through participation, not prescription. Together, these discussions demonstrate how community co-design transforms scientific innovation into meaningful, sustainable change.