U*Night was held on September 30th, and in Turin it was extended over October 1st as well. The Universities freely decided to organize live or online events and develop a calendar of pre-events the weeks before the Night and/or to continue activities after September 30. The 5 Missions identified by Horizon Europe were used as 5 thematic clusters to organize the activities (1. Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation 2. Cancer 3. Climate-neutral and smart cities 4. Healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters 5. Soil health and food). On top of that, the 3 research pillars of the Alliance (Circular Economy, Renewable Energy, and Cultural Heritage) were used as thematic clusters to strengthen the connection with UNITA. The focus on multilingualism and intercomprehension was also prominent and was the main subject of an activity tailored for schools and carried out on September 30 morning by UNITA members. The events were held in the local languages, and the activities were spread online on U*Night media profiles in English and local languages. The main shared activity proposed was the Research Marathon, carried out by the Universities of Turin, Timisoara, Covilha. The format is a sort of ted talk led by a host capable of making the show lively and keeping the rhythm. Every researcher had 15 minutes to talk about her/his own research starting from fake news and false myths to disrupt them. The Marathon was live streamed on each university’s channel.
Other activities proposed by the Consortium were conferences, exhibitions, workshops, games, and experiments. In Turin laboratories were set up where citizens could experience the researcher’s activities by doing hands-on experiments and testing prototypes. Universidade Beira Interior proposed a Walk with researchers around the historic center of Covilha. Conferences and science cafès were organized in collaboration with other UNITA projects such as RE-UNITA: one example can be represented by the online event “Gender imbalances in European Universities", promoted by Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour. The participant in the activities were citizens, students ranging from primary schools to universities, families, and retirees.
