ERN-Apulia3 targets to continue bringing Apulian citizens closer to researchers 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 2800 permanent researchers in addition to those from the Public and Private Research Institutions. The large capacity of contributors and beneficiaries was already demonstrated in the past EU-funded projects for 2018-2019 and 2020 Nights. ERN-Apulia3 further enlarged the network of partners and external collaborators in order to overpass its previous achievements. Main objectives are:
- to implement preparatory events (during the year) and the 2021 ERN where researchers meet the society, with particular attention to students, industrial and professional organizations, municipalities and public administrations, already actively involved in the past editions;
- 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, with a special emphasis on societal challenges for 2021 edition;
- 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 continue strengthening the connection among population/institutions and researchers to continue during the year beyond the ERN through apposite events, communication and contact channels;
- to explain the spirit and opportunities of the European Research Area and Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.
Preliminary events will be 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 will take place in 2021 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.
