Researchers' impact in everyday Life

Project Information

BRIGHT-NIGHT

Grant agreement ID: 101061075

DOI

10.3030/101061075

Project closed

EC signature date 21 April 2022

Start date 2 May 2022

End date 1 May 2024

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 295 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BRIGHT-NIGHT (Researchers' impact in everyday Life)

Reporting period: 2023-05-02 to 2024-05-01

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BRIGHT-NIGHT aims at bringing research and researchers closer to the general public of Tuscany, Italy. In fact, the BRIGHT-NIGHT Consortium includes the main Tuscan universities (Seven Universities and Schools of Higher Education) whose decennial collaboration has already produced very successful ERN events.
This objective will be achieved by showcasing research projects, with a specific focus on sustainability and societal challenges, through a rich and inclusive program of activities. Public events will be organized in the region's major cities in open spaces and city venues, in cooperation with the local Administration. We will increase the awareness about the impact of research on the daily lives of citizens and on the active role it can play in shaping the future and fostering young people’s interest in scientific studies with a gender balance approach, mostly in STEAM.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Our aim is to make the town centre of all cities involved – often a pedestrian area - a large meeting area where researchers and visitors can meet and interact. Keeping all activities at a reasonable walking distance from one another will maximise the possibility for each visitor to get involved in as many activities as possible. In each of the participating cities, the locations of the activities have been chosen among university premises, museums, botanical gardens, institutional buildings, cafes, bookstores and, most of all, streets, squares and parks in the city centres. In many cases, guided tours of the University laboratories will be organised.
Various types of engaging and inspiring activities will be staged in science hubs diffused in the cities in order to catch the attention of the public of all ages: contests, games, hands-on activities, active and interactive experiments, laboratory visits, talks, guided tours, music, and theatre performances and film screenings.
Whenever possible, the researchers will bring their instruments and technical devices with them so that visitors can directly approach research through a hands-on experience. Interaction between citizens and researchers is the key factor to stimulate the curiosity on the work of the researchers, to feel their commitment, their enthusiasm and to understand the importance of the products of their research for the society.
The programs in the different cities will be organised into two periods:
1. Waiting for the European Researchers Night: the pre-events during summer and the beginning of the school year. The two-year duration of the proposal will encourage the involvement of students from primary and secondary schools through delivering a scientific presentation during the Nights: they will be supported by academic researchers, who will help them to select and prepare a topic.
2. The European Researchers’ Night in Tuscany: the events of the Night itself starting on Friday afternoon, spanning throughout the night and lasting the day after. On Saturday, partners will organise face-to-face activities in city places inside and outside universities.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The reference territory of BRIGHT-NIGHT encompasses an entire region, the ninth out of 21 by population (3.73 million in 2019) at a national level and the fifth out of 21 by territorial extension (22,985 km2). In this broad context, 11 cities actively participated in the project, including 7 of the 8 capital cities of the region, for a total catchment area of about 1.232 million people: about a third of the entire region.
The seven partners of the consortium organised 400 face-to-face activities including 144 activities for children and families, reaching an estimated number of participants of 8,500 participants.
The impact within the consortium organisers, relating to the number of researchers involved, was 879 researchers involved, with a good gender balance (54.4% men / 45.6% women), of which 39 EU Funded Programs (including only 4 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellows, whose involvement remains critical and perfectible).
The press review included about 50 articles, including local, web, national, radio and TV interviews.
The project site has recorded a large overall participation with 18,3793 visits and 32,970 new users.
The analysis of the impact of the actions carried out on the project social channels revealed a global growth of followers (FB: +5.8%, IG: +36.6%, TW: +11%), a positive change in impressions for FB (+0.45%) and IG (+1.5%), a positive growth of the "reach" factor (FB: 1% and IG: 1%), a positive growth of "profile visits" for TW (+4.4%), a social audience of 71% women and 29% men - for FB - and 68% of women and 32% of men, for IG.

Hands-on activity by Suola Superiore Sant'Anna (Pisa)

Science hub in Pisa

A talk organised by UNISI (Siena)

University Laboratory visits at CNR in Pisa

Young visitors at the BRIGHT-NIGHT in Florence

Live music in Lucca

One of the activities organised by the university museums of the partner universities

Live concert in Pisa with University Orchestra of UNIPI

A talk organised by IMT Lucca

One of the UNISTRASI researchers interviewed (Siena)

The event dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs Boson (Florence)

Science hub in Siena

Researchers of the "SHOW and TELL" pitches in Florence

Consortium partners at the Press Conference