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CORDIS - Résultats de la recherche de l’UE
CORDIS

Life is Science in a Digital World

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LiS-Dig (Life is Science in a Digital World)

Période du rapport: 2023-04-01 au 2024-03-31

The LiS-Dig project is the organization of a public event in Austria as part of the European Researchers' Night, which takes place annually on the last Friday in September. The goal of LiS-Dig is to offer a wide range of interactive stations that connect science with everyday life. The general public, especially families, young adults and school classes, are invited to learn what happens behind the scenes at a research institution. The program is divided into expert talks, school workshops, hands-on experiment stations and an evening program. The main topics of the event are climate & environment, health & nutrition, digital transformation and culture & community. The “Researchers@School” activities (workshops for school classes) provide additional flexibility for schools to attend workshops independently of the main events in 2022 and 2023.
In 2022, the LiS-Dig event took place at the main venue in St. Poelten (lectures, stations, pub quiz, Science & Cinema evening event) with some smaller activities in Graz (workshops, Pint of Science evening event). In 2023 the main event location will be in Graz (lectures, stations, pop-up planetarium, Science Slam evening event) with smaller activities in St. Poelten (workshops, pub quiz).
Both events are evaluated by a quantitative and qualitative impact assessment. Learnings are implemented in the follow-up of any future events.

In general, the event is intended to help improve Austrian society's attitude towards science, which is currently rather low according to the 2022 Eurobarometer. By offering scientific content in a more tangible form, the public will be able to better understand and develop more trust in scientific content. The development of a workshop program for the “Researchers@School” program is intended to reach so-called “easy-to-ignore” groups in particular. One of the workshops, “Biotechnology in Arabic”, was specifically aimed at refugees with a translator and gave families from Syria an insight into biotechnology as an innovative field of research. Moreover, workshops like "How to convert toxin into oxygen and water - catalase can do that" in which a clear focus is set on how enzymes work and how biotechnologists are using them, as well as the career corner at the main event open up new career opportunities (e.g. a scientific careers as biotechnologists) to young people, who are in the process of deciding about their future profession. Another major objective some workshops, such as "The personal mobility check" or "The breathing ocean - is it threatening to suffocate" and of the "Life is Science" in general is to raise children's and (young) people's awareness of the importance of protecting our planet.
The main duties of the LiS-Dig project are divided into promoting the event (WP1 awareness campaign), organizing the event (WP2 activities during the event), organizing the “Researchers@School” activities (WP3 Researchers at school), evaluating the event (WP4 impact assessment) and managing the project (WP5 management).

WP1: The work for the awareness campaign was conducted as described in the GA and in Deliverable D1.1 (Report on the awareness campaign). The most important channels for the awareness campaign have been
- Online: website, social media, eNewsletter, videos
- Offline: Flyer, City lights, poster, press articles, info kit for schools, interaction with local authorities, pre-events, radio interview
About 600,000 potential visitors could be reached.

WP2: The activities during the night have been organized at the premises of STPUAS in St. Pölten and are described in deliverable D2.1 (Report on activities during the night). The program was divided into
- 7 School workshops
- 5 Talks of invited speakers
- 37 Interactive stations
- Evening program (Science & Cinema, Pubquiz, Pint of science)
In total we had 400 participants in 2022.

WP3: The “Researchers@School” activities define a workshop program that can be booked by schools from September 2022 until December 2023. During the first year, LiS-Dig offered 9 workshops, which were booked 29 times. The activities and the workshop schedule are summarized in Deliverable D3.1.
In total, 29 school classes (approxiamtely 580 pupils) have booked one of 9 different workshops.

WP4: The impact assessment was planned prior to the event (design of registration and evaluation forms, stamp pass, surveys) and evaluated after the particular event. The results of the 2022 event are summarized in D4.1 (Report on impact assessment). A quantitative and a qualitative impact assessment have been performed.

WP5: The management duties and the progress of the project are summarized in Deliverable D5.1.
The organization of the event is following common rules of efficient event management, and the biggest novelty, which was enabled by the European Commission, is the possibility to organize “Researchers@School” activities outside the date of 30th September 2022. This gave us lots of flexibility and room to interact with pupils and teachers all over Austria, and to target the workshops to individual needs of the school classes. The whole LiS-Dig project provides a couple of activities (workshops, experimental videos, interactive stations) that can be “recycled” for any other open event or interaction with school classes. The cooperation between ACIB and STPUAS was consolidated in the frame of LiS-Dig and will lead to follow-up open schooling and public engagement projects outside (and in addition to) the MSCA funding.
Experimental station about cultivated Meat in St. Pölten
Pint of Science evening event in Graz
LiS-Dig team at the venue in St. Pölten
School Workshop in Graz
Experimental station about enzymes in St. Pölten
Workshop for arabic speaking citizens in Graz
Pint of Science evening event in Graz
School Workshop in Graz
Workshop for arabic speaking citizens in Graz