During European Researchers' Night 2014 we had 55.563 visitors at 15 venues country wide which were exposed to a wide range of scientific activities performed and managed by scientists from the Israel academic community.
Opened University campuses and activities outside of the campuses allowed the public at large to meet scientist and science at eye level in a welcoming festivity atmosphere.
Awareness campaign involved TV & Radio interviews, newspaper adds and online activities prior to the event which was very successful and have reached over 1M people country wide.
Overview of the results (WP1)
Beyond the tremendous number of 55,563 visitors (10% more the last year) we did run a teasing campaign with a Lior Zoref, a TED lecturer (
http://liorzoref.com(opens in new window)) to increase the awareness of the event. More then 1M Israelies from all over the contry were aware of the event by either participating in the campign or being exposed to interviews and media coverage on written, interactive and broadcast.
Overview of the results (WP2)
During the night we had 15 venues running when SCE operated two venues in Beer-Sheva and Ashdod and Oranim Colladge operated an event as a third-party and based on own resources.
During the weeks before the event we had a successful dissemination process which led to 55,563 visitors (~8% more than last year) and over 1M people aware of the event.
Each of the venues had many activities offered to the public allowing families with young kids and tennagers as well as adults to enjoy the science festivity country wide. Our activities attracted also those who are not unually attending lactures or reading science magazines by choosing an appealing main theme "Brain Research" which is bery attractive by itself and by running lectures and activities dealing with everyday subjects such as sleep, dream and illusions and various more in-depth subjects such as development in neurological therapy over the years.
Partners did offered lactures, TED like short lectures, workshops, hands-on activities, Science Cafes, "Speed dating" meetings with researchers at eye level, lab visits and many many more in a festivity attractive environment to celebrate science. Each of the visitors, young and old, was able to find an activity interesting enough to learn and enjoy the night. Over all we had ~200 lectures, 10s of workshops and many more various activities both in and outside the venues.
Task Undertaken (WP3)
An assessment survey was performed among participants in the events on all the above institutions. The aim of the survey was to evaluate the impact of the events on the participants' attitudes towards science.
The participants were asked to answer a short internet questionnaire, which was consisted of 15 questions.
The questionnaire starts with the advertising issue, which examined how the participants learned about the Researchers' Night events.
Then there are some background details concerning the education and employment of the participants and their relationship to science, their attitudes towards science issues, a feedback on the various activities they experienced in the evening, the impact of the event on their willingness to engage science and two additional personal details (age and gender). The full version of the questionnaire is shown at the end of this report.
