MEDITERRANEAN RESEARCHERS' NIGHT (2022 AND 2023 EDITIONS)

Project Information

MEDNIGHT

Grant agreement ID: 101061190

DOI

10.3030/101061190

Project closed

EC signature date 21 April 2022

Start date 8 March 2022

End date 7 November 2023

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 599 696,00

Coordinated by

EPISTIMI EPIKOINONIA
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MEDNIGHT (MEDITERRANEAN RESEARCHERS' NIGHT (2022 AND 2023 EDITIONS))

Reporting period: 2023-03-08 to 2023-11-07

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Mediterranean Sea connects more than 500 million people across three continents, creating a shared history and identity with common challenges. The goal of Mediterranean Researchers' Night - MEDNIGHT is to promote unity across the Mediterranean region by raising awareness about common issues, promoting scientific careers, and highlighting the importance of science and scientists. MEDNIGHT offers a range of activities under the umbrella of "Mediterranean Science," which focuses on 4 pillars relevant to sea pollution, climate change, diet and nutrition, and health. The program also emphasizes the potential of R&D as a source of progress and well-being, particularly for female researchers and young people. The consortium organizes a variety of online and in-person activities in cities across the Mediterranean region, as well as in satellite cities.

Mednight falls under the European Researchers' Night, which aims to display the diversity of science and its impact on citizens' daily lives in fun, inspiring ways on the last Friday of September every year. Mednight has received funding for 2 consecutive years under this grant agreement (2022 and 2023) and is unique both in the way that it unites research centres, universities, researchers, scientists, cities, schools and citizens across the Mediterranean (Spain-Italy-Greece-Turkey-Cyprus) through a common consortium and in the way that it implements a wide range of activities at a transnational level, not only during the Night itself (September 30th 2022 and September 29th 2023) but also during the months leading to the Night in order to motivate, prepare and engage all target audiences in multiple ways.

Mednight's main objectives that the consortium is working against can be summarised as follows:
● Showcase science, scientific activity and its actors as a source of progress and well-being.
● Highlight the impact of scientific activity in our daily life.
● Emphasize the science developed by women.
● Empower and engage students in STEM areas.
● Show how rewarding it can be as a scientist to participate in research projects.
● Identify the diversity of existing options at the end of the scientific studies while reducing taboos and prejudices about people who develop scientific careers.
● Acknowledge the different skills acquired through a scientific career.
● Strengthen the open character of our scientific research.
● Increase the awareness of the collaborative and European nature of science.

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

During the second reporting period (8th March 2023-7th November 2023) the consortium has worked on all objectives which were originally set out in the proposal and the grant agreement, whilst reaching the foreseen target groups and celebrating research and science across the Mediterranean. The reporting period covers a wide range of project management and preparatory activities in order to set the objectives and the momentum between the partners of the consortium, engage the researchers who participated and highlight the upcoming events to the target audience, as detailed below:
•     School, Teachers, Students
•     Citizens, families, parents, general public
•     Adults and children in hospitals
•     Immigrants
•     Research Centres, Universities, Education Centres
•     Municipalities.

A wide range of actions across partners and consortium countries, as known as transactivities, has engaged youth, schools, students, teachers, scientists, researchers and the general public during both years of implememntation of Mednight, and they were serving as both preparatory and awareness activities. These Transactivities were the following:
○ Kick off meeting
○ Mediterranean Science Team
○ Documentary - Mednight Expedition
○ Mind the Lab
○ Science Communication Workshops
○ Exhibition - Mediterranean Faces of Science
○ Mednight Vessel - Toftevaag
○ Mednight TV
○ The Tales from Mednight

Furthermore, the Main Event took place with great success on the 29th September in 8 different venues across the Mediterranean, reaching more than 18,000 visitors with over 200 activities. Except for the transactivities, other activities performed during the Night were:
•     Talks, talk-shows, workshops
•     Experiments, exhibitions and demonstrations
•     Competitions, scientific games, activities for kids
•     Shows, scientific art happenings, guided visits, dramatised routes, science films
•     EU corners

The consortium’s efforts once again this year have a specific focus on linking researchers and scientists with the educational community. The Researchers’ Back to School (RBTS) has approached science for over 5500 students from 20 educational centres, virtual meetings have been attended by 3400 students, workshops at schools reached more than 4500 students, and workshops outside schools over 8000 students. Nearly 100 scholar centres have been part of the Back to School activities and over 200 researchers have been involved, whilst the efforts are continuing during the months that follow the second reporting period.

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 project has achieved wide acceptance by the broad public, has showcased the work of scientists and researchers, has managed to make universities more open and extrovert and had conveyed very important scientific messages to the general public, building a bridge between academia, the educational community and the citizens.Special emphasis was given to bridging academia and research with the educational community. Most of the researchers (academic stuff, young researchers, PhD students and PostDocs etc) that were instructors in the Mednight activities or transactivities, became Mednight's ambassadors, as they were upskilled in science communication and trained in explaining their research as simple as possible to the general public.

Therefore, during the second reporting period, the consortium partners organised and implemented a range of visits and activities that brought classrooms to the university and the research labs, but also researchers and scientists to schools and classrooms. This resulted both in students becoming more aware of STEM careers, the scientific methodology and the application of science in everyday life but also in scientists becoming more extroverted, learning how to communicate science to different/younger audiences and connecting their research to educational process in line with the European Commission priorities. As mentioned above more than 21.000 students in the second reporting period were approached in several ways through Mednight's activities. Most importantly, the schools that have hosted a researcher in their premises, have been initiated in the Open Schooling methodology, where the schools serve as Open Hubs and not as remote educational entities. In this approach, the schools could be closer to the local communities, the researchers and be aware of the contemporary enviromental, social and other issues that need to be addressed.