Societies underinvest in research either because it is a long term process and the results are not easily seen, or because of the complexity of this enterprise. This, along with other difficulties, weighs on the researchers who lack the will or power to get more engaged in public life, and this further affects the trust of the general public in science and research. Breaking the vicious circle is a slow process and should be based on a genuine partnership between the researchers, as promoters of new findings about the world's true nature, the society as a whole, with its most stringent but also subtle needs, and the communication facilitators as a way to surface the unexpressed realities.
The ReCoNnect project was thought of as part of a long term programme to rethink and restructure the way researchers present themselves and their work to the public, as a response to a more and more challenging and noisy communication environment which makes it difficult to convey the true merits of science and research for the benefit of the society.
To make this programme operational, the project has proposed re-connecting research and innovators to the current challenges the society faces: by selecting a main topic of interest to focus the communication; in this case it was the scientific contributions to The Green Deal, by having a more careful and better tailored communication to a more and more digital public, and to invite other stakeholders to be partners of the project from its inception.
Other objectives were to extend the Researcher’s Night events to smaller communities, even rural ones, and to collaborate with educational programmes and initiatives developed in other contexts, thus connecting existing educational events (summer schools, science communication programs) and STEM best practice learning communities in a coherent full year calendar.
