Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ERN-Apulia (European Researchers\' Night Apulia 2018-2019 - Discovering the fascinating world of research)
Teaser
ERN-Apulia targets to bring Apulian population closer to the research world and viceversa. Apulia is an Italian region with about 4.1 million inhabitants (approximately 7% of the whole Italian population), with 4 public universities having a total of about 2750 permanent...
Summary
ERN-Apulia targets to bring Apulian population closer to the research world and viceversa. Apulia is an Italian region with about 4.1 million inhabitants (approximately 7% of the whole Italian population), with 4 public universities having a total of about 2750 permanent researchers in addition to those from the Public and Private Research Institutions.
Our specific objectives within ERN-Apulia are:
- to plan and implement preparatory events (during the year) and two ERN (2018 and 2019) where researchers meet the society, with particular attention to students, industrial and professional organizations, municipalities and public administrations;
- to increase public awareness and recognition of the importance of researchers work and impact of research in daily life, with specific examples from technologies to health and life sciences, from elementary particle to astrophysics research, from robotics to the preservation of cultural heritage, humanities, social sciences, etc;
- to stimulate curiosity and interest by disseminating the latest achievements of worldwide and local research, animating a debate with the public on relevant aspects of more general interest;
- to explain the fascinating researchers’ daily work, made of inspiration, creativity, relationships, hopes, expectations, enthusiasm for new achievements without neglecting daily difficulties;
- to establish a tight connection among population/institutions and researchers to continue during the year beyond the ERN through apposite communication and contact channels;
- to explain the spirit and opportunities of the European Research Area, the H2020 agenda, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.
Preliminary events are organized during the months before the European Researchers’ Night (ERN) to increase interest and expectations over the whole regional territory. Then the European Researchers’ Night takes place in parallel in the main regional cities (Bari, Lecce, Brindisi, Foggia, Taranto as well as Castellana Grotte).
People participating to the event meet researchers, attend seminars and participate to various activities on a wide range of topics, e.g. from Physics to Engineering, from Biology to Medicine, from Cultural Heritage to Humanities, from Economy to Law and many others, with a significant interdisciplinary approach.
Work performed
A comprehensive awareness campaign was implemented, targeting the public at large regardless of age and scientific background but with special attention for students and children. Online communication was carried out by also realizing dedicated project webisite (http://www.ern-apulia.it/, http://www.laricercaviendinotte.it/), mail (laricercaviendinotte@unisalento.it) and social network profiles (FB laricercaviendinotte, TW ern_apulia, IG laricercaviendinotte) with further use of mailing lists, promotional materials (presentations, brochures and videos). All communication and awareness efforts shared the common objective to arouse the curiosity, interest and participation/involvement of the general public on topics and ideas from science and research.
In general, we had a strong response and enthusiastic involvement of researchers from universities and research centers with 168 contributions/initiatives implemented during the Night and total number of 491 researchers and 15000 participants. On ERN-Apulia web site is possible to consult the general program of the events ERN 2018.
Notably, we had a strong, active participation of children in particular on scientific games and hand-on experiments. Initiatives of particular success were also: lab/museum visits, multisensorial experiences and theathral shows.
The Night events had a significant number of participants, with at least 15000 counts in Apulia Region in addition to about 7000 participants in Rome area thanks to the involvement of ScienzaInsieme and an even larger number of participants in the associated events (estimated to be around 25000).
Final results
Within the 2019 event, we plan to further increase numbers of participants and preliminary events. Moreover, in planning the events we will take into account 2018 feedback.
Website & more info
More info: http://www.laricercaviendinotte.it/.