Tasks undertaken
WP1
Audience targeted: public at large regardless of age and scientific background, especially children and young people faced with a career choice or with the option of studying STEM subjects, with special emphasis on girls less willing to choose these subjects
Communication tools: Offline (posters displayed in educational and cultural centres; publication of articles and promotional announcements, interviews in newspapers; publication of press releases displayed to radio, press, TV channels; public advertising in urban furniture, billboards and posters in metro stations; pre-events) and Online (the project website and the social networks profiles, other institutional and popular websites, and e-mailing based on coordinator's and cooperating bodies' mailing lists).
Results
Posters distributed to the participants; Outdoor advertising in public places and public transport; Airing of announcements, advertising, programmes, interviews, news reports on radio and TV stations. Publication of articles, interviews, announcements, advertising in written and digital press and multiple press releases. Invitations sent to over 38.397 e-mail addresses; Organisation of pre-events by participants and gathering of all the ERN projects in Spain; Distribution of posters in educational and research centres all over Madrid; Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of the project website (382.331 hits from May to November) and of website of the ERN in Spain. Links with the websites of the institutions involved. Revamping of social network profiles. Special hashtags having more than 103.000 Twitter impressions in September. Instagram: researchers’ activities were published during the event, posting over pieces of news in print and digital press; About 3.500.000 were made aware of the ERN objectives with the exterior advertising campaign, adding up a media impact reaching an audience of 19.773.919 people.
WP2
Locations: the majority of the activities were carried out in an on-site format, exposing places where researchers carry out their daily work and places where people will not normally expect to see them.
Activities: hands-on experiments, workshops, popular science lectures, guided tours and lab visits, scientific gymkhana, science shows, demos, games, contests, etc.
Results
115 activities, 100 organized by the participant institutions and 15 parallel activities; 110 additional activities were organised simultaneously in South America; Involvement of 646 researchers of whom: 39 having benefitted from Marie Curie scheme, 86 having benefitted from support under FP7/HORIZON 2020 or other EU program; Overall number of attendees of 20.138 visitors
WP3
Ex ante questionnaire available on website; On-going questionnaire handled to the attendees; Questionnaires available in all the activities performed; Collection by each organiser assisted; Participation to the impact assessment rewarded; Ex post questionnaires addressed to institutions; Questionnaires addressing researchers and stakeholders available on Internet; Short and clear questions to encourage people to answer easily; Initial warning notice about the confidentiality and anonymity of the answers; External evaluation by professors of the University of Comillas
Results
Display of ex-posts online questionnaires and ex-ante on line questionnaires. Collection and processing of 1.150 questionnaires, selected at random among the questionnaires received from all the activities performed;
Main conclusions: Typology of visitors: 63,1% female and 36,9% male, 79% aged under 45; 25,7% secondary/vocational training education and 63,9% university studies; Overall positive feedback: 96,1% considered activities interesting and very interesting; Consideration of researchers about their labour to be little noticeable within society; 99% of the attendees have maintained or improved their opinion on the researchers’ work; 62,3% consider research contributes to improving competitiveness and welfare state, 17,7 % to spread knowledge and 62,3% to solve social problems; 77,9% of youngsters declare that they would like to become a researcher; The four main challenges which face Europe proposed had similar relevance to the public; 94,5% of the adults and 96,3% of the children intend to attend future editions.
WP4
Our participation was complemented with other 36 institutions involved. For the implementation of the project there were 3 organs: Coordinator, Steering Committee and Advisory Committee. Main tasks: Regular communication with the institutions involved; Summon and chairing meetings; Interface with the EU services; Follow up of the project activities; Reporting.
Results
The management structure was designed to provide a flexible, operative and participative decision making process and to ensure a proper management of the project. A simple structure was required to allow the participation of all the project participants. However, the activities offered were developed both onsite and online, or with a hybrid format, with noticeable results in terms of audience, accomplishment and satisfaction for both the public and the participants. Consequently, it is considered that it has worked successfully and has achieved its results.
