Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RiNG-24-25 (The European Researchers' Night in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2024-2025)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-05-01 al 2025-12-31
The project is implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where science is essential for resilience, competitiveness and future skills, yet remains insufficiently visible and unevenly accessible in everyday life. The distance between researchers, institutions and citizens is still pronounced, especially beyond major cities. Researchers are often expected to combine scientific work with communication and delivery without adequate time, training or support.
Public engagement with research is therefore not optional. In a context of complex governance, unequal access to opportunities and strong demand for credible, future-oriented education, science communication is part of the public value of research itself. The project is also relevant in the wider European setting: Bosnia and Herzegovina is associated to Horizon Europe, while the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans aims to accelerate convergence through skills, opportunity and socio-economic development. In this context, EU funding for science, education and research visibility helps widen participation, support mobility, build skills and connect local actors with European opportunities.
The overall objective is to strengthen the relationship between science and society by making research more visible, accessible and meaningful. The project aims to improve recognition of researchers and research careers, increase understanding of the benefits of research and innovation, and widen access to science engagement through inclusive, interactive and age-appropriate formats. A particular priority is to reach children, young people and underserved communities, including rural and semi-rural areas. The project also highlights the importance of junior researchers as contributors and relatable role models, and of dedicated project and communication managers in large engagement actions, allowing researchers to participate as experts without carrying the full operational burden. Expected impact goes beyond participation figures: stronger trust in science, improved attitudes towards researchers, wider access to science learning, and stronger links between research, education, communities and European opportunities.
Public engagement with research is therefore not optional. In a context of complex governance, unequal access to opportunities and strong demand for credible, future-oriented education, science communication is part of the public value of research itself. The project is also relevant in the wider European setting: Bosnia and Herzegovina is associated to Horizon Europe, while the EU Growth Plan for the Western Balkans aims to accelerate convergence through skills, opportunity and socio-economic development. In this context, EU funding for science, education and research visibility helps widen participation, support mobility, build skills and connect local actors with European opportunities.
The overall objective is to strengthen the relationship between science and society by making research more visible, accessible and meaningful. The project aims to improve recognition of researchers and research careers, increase understanding of the benefits of research and innovation, and widen access to science engagement through inclusive, interactive and age-appropriate formats. A particular priority is to reach children, young people and underserved communities, including rural and semi-rural areas. The project also highlights the importance of junior researchers as contributors and relatable role models, and of dedicated project and communication managers in large engagement actions, allowing researchers to participate as experts without carrying the full operational burden. Expected impact goes beyond participation figures: stronger trust in science, improved attitudes towards researchers, wider access to science learning, and stronger links between research, education, communities and European opportunities.
Across 2024 and 2025, the project delivered a structured public-engagement and science-education programme, centred on two national editions of European Researchers’ Night in 11 cities each year. Common formats were implemented across locations, including Discovery Lab workshops, science fairs and the high school competition, enabling participants to engage with experiments, prototypes, demonstrations and research-based problem-solving.
The programme covered green transition, circular economy, biodiversity, environmental protection, water quality, robotics, digital skills, energy literacy and applied technologies. A key achievement was establishing a repeatable model that translates research into hands-on, age-appropriate and locally relevant learning experiences.
Researchers at Schools was fully implemented in both years. In 2024, the project reached 10 primary schools (around 1,000 pupils) and 3 kindergartens (around 120 preschool children). In 2025, it again reached 10 primary schools (around 1,000 pupils) and expanded to 5 kindergartens (around 130 preschool children). The outreach used a structured 90-minute classroom model combining discussion, demonstrations and simple experiments; in 2025 it was strengthened through a water-quality module and activities linked to European Robotics Week.
Junior researchers were strongly involved in delivery across both years, particularly in school visits and public-facing scientific activities, supporting peer-to-peer learning and building science communication capacity within the research community. The action also generated a comparative evidence base through two rounds of impact assessment (2024: 216 pre-event and 176 during/after-event questionnaires; 2025: 273 pre-event and 261 during/after-event questionnaires). Key outcomes are: a consolidated multi-city in-person engagement model; a transferable school-outreach format; evidence that interactive and problem-oriented formats outperform passive ones; and confirmation of junior researchers as credible mediators between science and society.
The programme covered green transition, circular economy, biodiversity, environmental protection, water quality, robotics, digital skills, energy literacy and applied technologies. A key achievement was establishing a repeatable model that translates research into hands-on, age-appropriate and locally relevant learning experiences.
Researchers at Schools was fully implemented in both years. In 2024, the project reached 10 primary schools (around 1,000 pupils) and 3 kindergartens (around 120 preschool children). In 2025, it again reached 10 primary schools (around 1,000 pupils) and expanded to 5 kindergartens (around 130 preschool children). The outreach used a structured 90-minute classroom model combining discussion, demonstrations and simple experiments; in 2025 it was strengthened through a water-quality module and activities linked to European Robotics Week.
Junior researchers were strongly involved in delivery across both years, particularly in school visits and public-facing scientific activities, supporting peer-to-peer learning and building science communication capacity within the research community. The action also generated a comparative evidence base through two rounds of impact assessment (2024: 216 pre-event and 176 during/after-event questionnaires; 2025: 273 pre-event and 261 during/after-event questionnaires). Key outcomes are: a consolidated multi-city in-person engagement model; a transferable school-outreach format; evidence that interactive and problem-oriented formats outperform passive ones; and confirmation of junior researchers as credible mediators between science and society.
The project goes beyond a conventional outreach model centred on a single annual event. Over two consecutive years, it developed a multi-city, evidence-based, school-connected and continuity-oriented engagement model. It produced a replicable format transferable across locations and age groups, and generated comparative findings on what formats work best (practical workshops, demonstrations, competitions, robotics and environmental testing). It also demonstrated the value of junior researchers as science communicators and peer role models, supporting sustainable capacity building. The project also demonstrated that effective science engagement at this scale depends on strong cross-sector cooperation, with partnerships among civil society organisations, universities, private companies and individual contributors playing a key role in making RiNG possible.
Overall, the project established a transferable science-engagement home base for Bosnia and Herzegovina: a tested model that strengthens long-term science-society interaction. For more than a decade, European Researchers’ Night in Bosnia and Herzegovina has built a lasting legacy of bringing research closer to citizens and reaffirming that science and education should be accessible to everyone, and with the help of the EU, free of charge.
Overall, the project established a transferable science-engagement home base for Bosnia and Herzegovina: a tested model that strengthens long-term science-society interaction. For more than a decade, European Researchers’ Night in Bosnia and Herzegovina has built a lasting legacy of bringing research closer to citizens and reaffirming that science and education should be accessible to everyone, and with the help of the EU, free of charge.