Researchers and citizens: facing together the European challenges

Project Information

MADRIDNIGHT

Grant agreement ID: 101061343

DOI

10.3030/101061343

Project closed

EC signature date 21 April 2022

Start date 1 May 2022

End date 30 April 2024

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 300 000,00

Coordinated by

FUNDACION PARA EL CONOCIMIENTO MADRIMASD
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MADRIDNIGHT (Researchers and citizens: facing together the European challenges)

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2024-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The European Researchers’ Night in Madrid aimed to highlight the important role researchers’ labour in our society and its contribution to the improvement of societal welfare, not only running the engine of technological innovation but also by their enhancement of knowledge acquisition in Europe. The MADRIDNIGHT project was addressed to citizens of the Region of Madrid that aimed to bring researchers and their work closer to the public at large and to promote research careers among young people without gender barriers from very early ages.

To achieve this goal a continuous and wide-ranging awareness campaign was launched combining the traditional communication vectors (written press, radio, TV or street adverts) with the contemporary ones (virtual media or social networks and platforms). The event aimed to attract as much people as possible by transmitting the main messages of the Night, i.e: Science is built by all of us and for all of us; and emphasise the exceptional role of Researchers, which live amongst us, and the importance of the sciences to face the global challenges.

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

Tasks undertaken (WP1):

Audience targeted: public at large regardless of age and scientific background, especially children and young people faced with a career choice or with the option of studying STEM subjects, with special emphasis on girls less willing to choose these subjects

Communication tools
· Offline: posters displayed in educational and cultural centres; publication of articles and promotional announcements, interviews in newspapers; publication of press releases displayed to radio, press, TV channels. Public advertising: adverts in urban furniture, billboards and posters in metro stations; pre-events
· Online: the project website and the social networks profiles, other institutional and popular websites, and e-mailing based on coordinator's and cooperating bodies' mailing lists

Results achieved (WP1)
- Over 300 posters, distributed to the participants from all over the Region of Madrid
- Outdoors advertising circuit in the main and longer streets in the centre of Madrid. Advertising in public places and public transport: city billboards and posters in main underground stations of Madrid
- Airing of announcements, advertising, programmes, interviews, news reports on radio and TV stations. Publication of articles, interviews, announcements, advertising in written and digital press
- Publication of multiple press releases, by the coordinator and some of the institutions involved. Sending of invitations to over 34.466 e-mail addresses, schools, universities, research centres, scientific and technological parks, etc.
- Organisation of pre-events, as a national event gathering all the ERN projects in Spain and particular pre-events carried out by some participants
- Distribution of posters in educational and research centres all over Madrid
- Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of the project website (841.302hits from May to the end of November) and of website of the ERN in Spain. Links with the websites of the institutions involved. Revamping of social network profiles. Special hashtags: #NIGHTmadrid, #NIGHTspain, #MSCAnight, @MSCActions, EuropeanResearchersNight, #ERN22 and #NocheEuropeaInvestigadoresused for all the ERN in Madrid, Spain and Europe; having more than 86.000 Twitter impressions in September. Instagram: researchers’ activities were published during the event, having more than 10.000 impressions in September.
- About 3.500.000 were made aware of the ERN objectives with the exterior advertising campaign, adding up a media impact reaching an audience of 8.521.492 people.

Tasks undertaken (WP2)

· Locations: the majority of the activities were carried out in an on-site format, exposing the university campuses, research centres, museums, botanical gardens, cultural and innovative centres, including places where researchers carry out their daily work and places where people will not normally expect to see researchers.

· Activities: hands-on experiments, workshops, popular science lectures, guided tours and lab visits, scientific gymkhana, cooking show, presentation of prototypes, display of films and videos, science shows, demos, games, contests, etc.

Results achieved (WP2) in 2021
- 115 activities, 100 organized by the participant institutions and 15 parallel activities
- 108 additional activities were organised simultaneously in South America
- Involvement of 597 researchers of whom: 29 having benefitted from Marie Curie scheme, 88 having benefitted from support under FP7/HORIZON 2020 or other EU program
- Overall number of attendees of 20.138 visitors

Results achieved (WP2) in 2022
- 130 activities and 10 parallel activities
- More than 300 additional activities were organised simultaneously in South America
- Involvement of 926 researchers of whom: 38 having benefitted from Marie Curie scheme, 104 having benefitted from support under FP7/HORIZON 2020 or other EU program
- Overall number of attendees of 10.375 visitors

Tasks undertaken (WP3)

- On-going questionnaire handled to three different groups: attendees over and under the age of 12 years old and researchers.
- Questionnaires available in all the activities performed
- Collection by a digital platform and assisted by each organiser
- Participation to the impact assessment rewarded
- Ex post questionnaires addressed to institutions
- Questionnaires addressing researchers and stakeholders available on Internet
- Short and clear questions to encourage people to answer easily
- Initial warning notice about the confidentiality and anonymity of the answers
- Questionnaires analysed by professors of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M)

Tasks undertaken (WP4)
- Questionnaire available in all the activities performed
- Collection and treatment of the results of each activity
- External evaluation by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
- Coordination and assistance for the Researchers at Schools program

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)

During the event, more than 10.400 people participate in the activities of the XIII European Researchers Night 2022.
926 researchers, of which 38 were MSC researchers, undertaken the 440 activities of the journey, many of them performed in public facilities of the Comunidad de Madrid.
Large media impact reached an audience of 8.521.492 people. Exterior advertising campaign reached an audience of 3.500.000 people.

FFE activity

madri+d activity-1

CNIO activity

CEU activity

UFV activity

IdISSC activity

IMDEA Agua activity

CCHS-CSIC activity

SEBBM activity

madri+d activity-2