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Businesses in the sci-comm industry are often short of internal staff and specific expertise, such as campaign rollouts, professional branding, and medical animations, which makes external agencies necessary. In such scenarios, companies and institutions must have strong relationships with external creative agencies that are ready to jump in at all times. Given the high stakes of these projects, involving professionals is crucial to attaining the desired outcomes.
Today, everyone is willing to invest in perfecting their key messaging to enhance audience comprehension. Thus, sci-comm has become a must-have to stand out in the market. The ever-increasing importance of science communicators—whether they practice in education, marketing, visual design, copywriting, or consulting—implies the need to work harder and better represent the broader science and technology industry.
During her time as a research student, Molly Patton noticed the struggles related to funding and audience understanding, and thus, began creating small visuals to include in her research presentation. As a result, she stepped away from academia to pursue a career in science communication. Four years later she founded Miscible with the aim of helping non-expert audiences understand complex content. In the present day, Molly leads a dynamic professional team of strategic and creative talent, creating media that transforms highly complicated content into easier, captivating visuals.
Unlike a typical marketing or design agency, Miscible is in the business of science communication, helping researchers and companies secure the funding that their work deserves. Molly Patton, Founder & Sci-Comm Lead, says, “We make frontier discoveries and innovations easier to understand – and impossible to ignore.” In short, the company tells stories of science in a manner that captivates, connects, and ensures that audiences walk away with a thorough understanding of the true value and impact of technological and scientific breakthroughs.
All this is a result of using proven methods that have been developed on the basis of more than 600 successful projects. Molly believes that at the end of the day, it is all about telling the right story to the right people and seeing today’s ideas convert into tomorrow’s solutions.
Miscible understands that each client’s needs are unique, including their expected results and timelines. Thus, the company treats every customer uniquely. Molly explains that every new client reaches out for a visual solution. The onboarding process is entirely tailored based on the client’s timeline. Miscible has a means of fast-tracking their project briefing and onboarding process in the case of stricter timelines.
According to the project’s requirements, Molly uses her creative and scientific expertise combined with her experience of over 600 successful projects to craft a proposal consisting of recommendations. In case the client does not already have an understanding of how Miscible works and how it is different from other companies in the industry, they can go through the proposal, which has a section explaining everything about the agency.
“We are looking to completely overhaul this to be a complete bespoke (but automated) process that will eventually help us provide an impeccable client experience right from the get-go, streamline the boring stuff like signing service agreements, and get on with the fun stuff, but also start to foster long term relationships with clients right from the very first interaction,” says Molly.
It is not just about what Miscible offers, but also about how it does so. The company addresses each client’s needs uniquely. But that’s not all that makes it stand out in the market. What makes Miscible different is its mission.
While other agencies are focused on looking inward to hone their craft, Miscible looks outward to seek collaborations it can form and the impact it can make. Molly proudly states, “We are not employees tied to a company name—we are individuals who come together under a unifying banner to contribute our expertise and do good work that makes a difference.”
Like every other business, Miscible also faces challenges while working on projects. When asked which challenges are the most difficult ones, Molly responds, “Projects where there are multiple stakeholders across different sectors are often the hardest.” Some of the instances she shared include projects having academics and industry at equal stakes, whose KPIs, milestones, and value placement make it challenging.
According to Molly, there’s a tricky balance between handling and incorporating what each stakeholder eventually requires, what they value as crucial, what they expect to see, and finally blending that with the agency’s creative expertise. Such a task requires encouraging the stakeholders to step outside of the types of visual media they are accustomed to seeing in their industries.
“Typically, it’s rare that all of our recommendations are accepted, but we often get one or two creative ideas across the line, and those inroads begin to build trust with our clients. Usually by the third project, they are completely receptive to our creative and strategic recommendations, and we build a strong relationship.” Hence, facing these challenges not only enhances the experience and expertise of the Miscible team but also helps in building great relationships with clients and coming out stronger than before.
When asked about the evolution of science communication in the upcoming five years and Miscible’s plan to prepare for these changes, Molly surprisingly said, “That’s difficult to answer. If you asked me at the end of 2024, I would have said we’ll see the Australian sci-comm landscape grow into a more established industry in its own right with more established businesses.” But that doesn’t mean Molly isn’t prepared for the company’s future.
After analyzing the potential impact of global news in 2025 and the need for cost-cutting, the founder believes that a rise in the global freelance science communication market is expected. “With that comes a responsibility to open the network to include more professionals worldwide,” says Molly. She also adds that it implies the need “to ensure we have the systems and operations to make sure that we can support that kind of growth and have the work available so everyone can still practice sci-comm and contribute to the industry.” Nonetheless, the expected rise in the global freelance market suits Miscible’s business model perfectly.
She says that the major milestone is to see a line allocation in research funding budget spreadsheets, particularly for science communication. This will help in building long-term communication strategies for research projects, which will further support the company’s clients throughout the project’s lifetime. She also added that Miscible is currently working with small budgets that are a result of miscellaneous expense budgets.
“This is a good start, and is significant progress from just a few years ago, but there’s still a long way to go to ensure every researcher receives the same opportunity to access professional sci-comm services to advocate their research or put the most compelling funding application forward that can compete with other applications,” she says.
Miscible’s achievement is a result of its honest and selfless team of professionals. Whenever Molly, as the Sci-Comm Lead, reaches out with a requirement for a specific skillset, nobody is ever selfish or dishonest about being the right fit for the job when they aren’t. “Our current core group within the network are such incredible supporters of what Miscible is trying to achieve; it really feels like we are a cohesive team,” says Molly with immense joy and pride.
When someone is not a great fit for the job, they do their best to introduce Miscible to the right people they know. Why? Because each person is invested in the mission as a whole and seeks the project’s success. Molly says, “I would love to see more inter-network collaborations, and there are a lot of ideas in the pipeline. However, we’re still in the phase of testing the waters, exploring what that might look like, and gauging the level of enthusiasm for those kinds of activities.”
For Miscible, collaborations are everything. In fact, the company is built on partnerships; the more it has, the more it expands its capabilities, and thus, augments its capacity to connect researchers with the science communication industry. When asked about plans, expansions, projects, and collaborations, Molly said she couldn’t reveal anything.
Nonetheless, she stated, “I can say that our focus this year is to build. We are building relationships, internal frameworks, and systems.” In addition to this, the company is also focused on building a core Miscible team as well as solutions that address key gaps in tools and resources available across all industries. The motive is to create such content that makes media more accessible and ensures no one is left behind as the world moves forward.
Company Description: Miscible Co is a science communication business that aids companies and research organisations in getting the funding they deserve by breaking complex content into easier visuals, helping non-expert audiences understand everything.
Pull Quote: “We make frontier discoveries and innovations easier to understand – and impossible to ignore.”
Company Name: Miscible Co
Founding Year: 2021
Office Locations: Melbourne, Australia
Official Website of the company: www.miscible.co
Name of the Featured Leader: Molly Patton
Designation of the Leader: Founder and Sci-Comm Lead
