Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SHARPER (Sharing Researchers’ Passion for Evidences and Resilience)

Teaser

The SHARPER goal is to make the researchers’ passions accessible and comprehensible to everybody, starting from younggenerations, through engaging communication formats and activities that take place in unusual venues and make theresearchers’ life a shared experience with...

Summary

The SHARPER goal is to make the researchers’ passions accessible and comprehensible to everybody, starting from young
generations, through engaging communication formats and activities that take place in unusual venues and make the
researchers’ life a shared experience with a large audience in Italy. Researchers are evidences hunters, their passion for
facts, data and observations collected, accumulated and interpreted with a constant and patient day by day activity, is one of
the researchers’ main features. It is usually combined with their ability and commitment to use these evidences to tackle
some of the more complex issues that are relevant to all of us: from fundamental research problems such as those related to
the origin of the Universe or the structure of our brain to technological endeavours and societal challenges. The constant
quest for evidences reveals, not only their insatiable curiosity but also their passion for challenging the limits of our
knowledge and innovate going beyond the known, being able to accept and adapt to the changes or, in a sentence, to show
a profound passion for resilience. The combination of these researchers’ passions for identifying and understanding facts
and for wisely adapt and evolve by innovating and the opportunity for citizens to meet them, seems to be vital in a constantly
changing society.. The acronym SHARPER - Sharing Researchers’ Passion for Evidences and Resilience summarizes all
these elements. SHARPER night 2018 was held in 12 cities: Trieste (hosting city of ESOF 2020) Pavia, Ancona, Macerata, Perugia, L\'Aquila,
Napoli, Caserta, Palermo (Italian Capital of Culture 2018), Catania, Cagliari and Nuoro.

--- To convey the message that a researcher is a passionate person who loves to engage with
complex issues relying on facts and observations that can be accessible to everyone to
plan the future and innovate;
--- To stress that the researchers enjoy the dialogue with all the social actors to reach common
goals through a shared knowledge;
--- To motivate young students to enter researcher careers and become key actors of the
future;
--- To tell that strong collaboration between researchers and citizens aiming together at
excellence triggers innovation;
--- To broaden the meaning of what we call researchers beyond any stereotypes;
--- To provide motivated audiences with opportunities of deeper knowledge of the
researchers’ work;
--- To encourage children to discover researchers as role models because they are passionate
and knowledgeable;
--- To use researchers’ emotions and enthusiasm to make excellent research accessible and
comprehensible to everyone, from young students to adults;
--- To develop a national community of researchers that are excellent communicators

Work performed

\"- Conception, production and display of promotional material distributed in public
spaces
- Paper distribution materials (postcards, A3 posters, event programmes)
- Give aways ( T-shirts, lapel pins, stickers, shopping bags, backpack bags,
balloons, fluorescent bracelets)
- Promotional street furniture (roll ups, totems, rigid posters, cardboard totems)
- Public Advertising (6x3m billboards, 70x100cm and 100x140 road posters, PVC
banners, banners on public transport such as bus)
- Press conferences: 1 national press conference in Rome - 7 local press conferences
- Publication of numerous press releases at overall and local levels, displayed to
national/regional newspapers, on-line journals national press agencies, TV networks
- Organization of pre events/participation to foregoing events

Website analytics : www.sharper-night.eu
Period: September 1st-- October 31st:
-- 52.000 unique visitors,
-- 94.500 page visualisations,
-- 18.500 downloads of programmes
Social Media Report
--- Facebook Page @sharper.night
-- Total like to the page: 10.595
-- + 18,7% from September 17 to October 1st
-- 400.000 post visualizations
-- 15300 interactions with posts from September 17th to October 1st
--- Instagram Account
-- 1545 reached accounts
-- 20226 impressions
-- 1689 actions on account
-- +138,8% since September 14th
-- 45% male – 55% female
--- Twitter account
-- #sharpernight hashtag in twitter national tendencies on September 28th

--- Sending of newsletters by more than 80 institution
--- Overall number of people made aware of the European Researchers\'Night and its
objectives : 900.000

A very wide offer of different activities has been implemented for an overall number of 567
different activities spread in 12 town.
In detail:
--- Ancona: 30 activities
--- Cagliari: 56 activities
--- Catania: 80 activities
--- Caserta: 15 activities
--- L’Aquila: 48 activities
--- Macerata: 40 activities
--- Napoli: 60 activities
--- Nuoro: 44 activities
--- Pavia: 20 activities
--- Palermo: 32 activities
--- Perugia: 95 activities
--- Trieste: 47 activities

Mix of hands-on experiments, guided visits, games, shows, informal talks, conference,
interactive presentations, exhibitions, competitions, challenges with researchers, and
European corners;
--- Active involvement of 3850 researchers, of whom:
-- 65 having benefitted from SMC schemes;
-- 90 having benefitted from another EU support (FP 7/HORIZON 2020);

105.000 visitors having taken part in the activities offered.
\"

Final results

The Sharper 2018 project activities have been characterized by considerable complexity. In
fact, coordinating the activity in 12 cities - very different for institutions and cultures - was a real
challenge in terms of organization, content and communication.
In any case, it can be said that the challenge has been interpreted appropriately, given that
the experience on formats and communication between researchers and the public is quite
significant, given what has already been achieved in recent years.
At the end of the work of monitoring and evaluation it is possible to list the main potentials and
the limits of what has been achieved in order to plan the activities of 2019 adequately.
--- Collection, analysis and processing of 1800 feedbacks (pre-test survey, ex-ante and
ex-post questionnaires, observation cards, final questionnaires, researchers\'
interviews);
--- Main conclusions (see Deliverable 3):
-- Typology of visitors: mostly students although different distribution according to the
city considered, relatively high level, mainly coming from the regional area hosting
the events, relative balance in gender(also different form city to city);
--Overall positive feedback about the event (interest, locations, venues, contacts with
researchers, schedule, concrete organisation);

--- Suggestions for improvements:
-- Accurate selection of researchers for different formats, offering some guidelines on how to communicate (timing, ways, active involvement of the public)
-- Precise information on the processes involved, highlighting some important elements: adequate information, methods of information in case of
cancellation of activities, use of simple and clear materials in texts and methods of use
-- Precise definition of activities with reference to the number of repetitions during the evening
-- Improve reception and hospitality at places where people are involved.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.sharper-night.it.