Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RENA II (REsearchers\' Nights organized by Athens area Research Institutions to convey the science benefits to the public and motivate young people to science careers)
Teaser
The Researcher\'s Night addresses the need to convey to the public the importance of Scientific Research and its benefits to Society.Scientific Research is the driving force of the technology and innovation. Thus it benefits Society in many ways facilitating our lives by...
Summary
The Researcher\'s Night addresses the need to convey to the public the importance of Scientific Research and its benefits to Society.
Scientific Research is the driving force of the technology and innovation. Thus it benefits Society in many ways facilitating our lives by improving the health, the environment and the technological means.
The following objectives are pursued:
o Help the public appreciate Scientific Research and its impact on their lives by establishing the following concepts on Scientific Research and Researchers:
o Researchers are not isolated in their labs, they can be found everywhere around us in real life activities. They are everyday people with their own hobbies and their own
dedication to their very interesting work;
o Research is the only way to improve and extend our knowledge of the world and its workings;
o Research leads the way to innovation being the necessary process to lead us to technological progress and higher life quality;
o Motivate the young people to follow research careers. The research profession, in any scientific field, is a very interesting, exciting and highly rewarding occupation. As a
Researcher:
o You are constantly learning new things, never getting bored
o You have always the feelings of challenge and accomplishment
o You can deploy and develop your full intellectual potential
o You will be having as much fun as playing with your toys
Work performed
\"For the Awareness campaign may actions were taken including:
o Conception, realization of promotional material: posters, roll ups, programs, invitations, posters of various formats, banners of different formats, postcards, invitation cards for
pre-events, give away such as balloons, pens, stickers, thematic fliers… displayed during the pre-events and the period prior to the main event;
ο Public advertising: display of big banners and posters outside and inside partner\'s premises and public places.
o Publication of multiple versions of press releases circulated in numerous waves from all partners, invitations to all public and private sectors.
o Airing of announcements, advertising, interviews, appearance of coordinator through national and local radio stations.
o Partnership established with 33 media sponsors;
o Articles, announcements and advertisements published in newspapers and magazines, Press releases displayed to all media, networks and collaborators;
o Promotion during other public events
o Production of radio spot and video spot for all cities of both Greek consortia and airing everywhere in Greece.
o Promotional roll ups, banners, invitations, information leaflets, etc distributed and newspapers and TV announcements for the parallel events
o Set up new, improved welcome page www.rengreece.eu and www.rengreece.com, hosting together links to both Greek consortia’s websites for 2018 - 2019; Set up new,
improved Ren Athens consortium’s website: www.renathens.gr. Updating and maintenance of social networks profiles: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (hashtag #rengreece);
o Over 30 partnerships with on-line media sponsors, special announcements on popular websites and science organizations websites.
o Creation of two “teaser†videos, released in the social media
o Many pre-events and Mind-the-Lab actions organized at 5 cities.
Approximately 2.000.000 people were made aware of the Researchers Night.
During the Night:
o Offer of activities including:
o Numerous hands-on activities, tens of science shows, several specific kids-oriented activities, several different workshops
o Many guided visits in participating institutions,
o Competitions and games (numerous game areas);
o Theatre performances, Planetarium shows;
o Science talks, exhibitions (scientific instruments, scientific achievements);
o Art and science activities, music performances by researchers and students;
o European corners;
o Active involvement of over 256 researchers in both preparatory works and implementation of the activities
o Over 10.000 visitors having taken part in the various activities offered.
According to the feedback from questionnaires distributed to different target groups and the polls results, it can be concluded that the Researcher’s Night 2018 at Demokritos was a very successful event. The number of votes in polls in 2018 was almost twice that in previous years. Following the polls results, 92% of votes correspond to positive evaluation of the event and following the answers in questionnaires, 100% of respondents rated the event as very interesting or interesting. Visitors reported that they strengthened their interest about science and research after the event. As in the previous years, interactive games, experiments and presentation of the Researchers’ Centers have been rated by visitors as the most attractive and interesting activities during the event.
All respondent visitors found their contact with researchers and scientists very interesting and reported that their opinion about researchers was much improved after the event. Intelligence combined with hard work have been rated as the most outstanding characteristics of a talented researcher.
The vast majority of the students (91%) believe that scientific research has an overall positive influence on peoples’ lives, mainly through new discoveries, medicines and inventions. However, a percentage of 8% (higher in femal\"
Final results
Our expectations are to make the public aware of the importance of the Scientific Research for their lives and for the progress of Society. Our reach is typically over 10,000 visitor people per year with no significant overlap but also several millions of people become aware of the efforts to make the public aware of the work of Scientists.
The impact of the action includes the following points:
o Increase in the awareness of the importance of research and innovation; We have pin-pointing the importance of scientific work focusing on the young people. According to the
assessment this was a great success.
o More favourable general attitude towards its funding; The public was exposed to the importance of science for progress and prosperity.
o Better understanding of the key benefits that research brings to society; Science promotes technology but also provides services which facilitate and improve our lives.
o Reduction in the stereotypes about researchers; The public is gradually changing his view on scientists. They are no longer the difficult to approach people... just too busy!
o Increase of people taking up research careers; This is one of the main concerns for all the Researchers\' Nights and it seems that more and more young people are showing their
preference in science carriers,
o Increase communication and synergies among scientific and educational entities; This is one of our accomplishments we are proud of. More schools are adding to the Night with
activities developed with their science teachers.
Website & more info
More info: http://renathens.gr/.