EUROPEAN UNION CONTEST FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS 2015 IN MILAN

Project Information

EUCYS2015

Grant agreement ID: 674923

DOI

10.3030/674923

Project closed

EC signature date 14 April 2015

Start date 1 January 2015

End date 31 December 2015

Funded under

• SCIENCE WITH AND FOR SOCIETY

Total cost

€ 1 134 437,50

EU contribution

€ 800 000,00

Coordinated by

FAST - FEDERAZIONE DELLE ASSOCIAZIONI SCIENTIFICHE E TECNICHE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EUCYS2015 (EUROPEAN UNION CONTEST FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS 2015 IN MILAN)

Reporting period: 2015-01-01 to 2015-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The City of Milan hosted the 27th edition of EUCYS, the European Union Contest for Young Scientists, on September 17-22, 2015 and welcomed guests from 38 European and extra Europe countries to take part in a very exciting week of competition and science full immersion.
The Contest, which takes place every year in a different European city, is one of the core initiatives of the European Commission to support students interested in science and technology, to foster their talents and to make science more appealing to young people. The EU Contest for Young Scientists is part of the Science with and for Society activities managed by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. Within Horizon 2020, Science with and for Society aims to build a more harmonious relationship between scientific endeavour and the European Society at large.
The 2015 edition of the Contest was organised by FAST, the Italian Federation of Scientific and Technical Association, together with the EC, with the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic. Many national and local public institutions actively supported the event, such as the Ministry of Education, University and Research, the Lombardy Region and the Milan Municipality. Moreover, all the Milan Universities and a great number of Research Centres and companies contributed in different ways to the success of this Milan edition.
169 contestants aged 14-19 selected from 38 countries and the European Schools attended the event and presented the results of their science and technology projects during the exhibition held at La Fabbrica del Vapore. The venue is a former tramcars manufacturing company dating back to the middle of the 19th century and now transformed in an artistic and cultural performance area by keeping its basic architectural appearance. 104 stands split by field collected all the projects and public could visit and appreciate the results. The Jury members selected the best projects in the different field and awarded the prizes.
The 2015 edition also offered the possibility to widen the participation fields by adding the EXPO2015 theme on “Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life”. Therefore, thanks to the parallel International Exposition, which was also visited by all participants, all EU and associated countries were encouraged to promote the participation of an extra food-related project, resulting in a big success with 31 more contestants and 18 extra projects.
The parallel program organised for the participants was thick and very interesting, offering a science conference on “The impact of space missions on science” with the participation of Astronauts Paolo Nespoli and Franco Malerba; the visit to the Leonardo Da Vinci science and technology museum; the visit to EXPO and other cultural sightseeing.
For all information and prizes awarded, visit the website: www.eucys2015.eu

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

FAST worked to create a platform of national and local institutions, as well as private entities and companies, committed to science and research and eager to collaborate at this important event and sharing the EU objectives to support the best young students in EU and other participating countries. In this way the project could benefit from important sponsorships from the following companies and Associations: AICA-Italian Computer Association, Finmeccanica, A2A, SOL Group, Salvetti Foundation, Bialetti, Credit Suisse, 3M Italia and Kaspersky. Many technical sponsors participated at the event supporting specific actions. The Host Organiser also spent many efforts to guarantee the collaboration of the best Italian and local scientific institutions/research centres/universities able to donating the National Special Prizes, in addition to the Core Prizes and Honorary Awards. At this regard, agreements were finalised with the Milan Bicocca University, A2A Company, AICA, Bruno Kessler Foundation, Italian Institute for Technology, Salvetti Foundation and Sol Group.
The Host Organiser was also very much involved in creating the best opportunities of collaboration with EXPO 2015, the International Exposition held May-September 2015 in Milan and dedicated to food. Thanks to the collaboration of the Steering Committee for EXPO-EU Scientific programme, all EU and associated countries were encouraged to promote the participation of an extra project linked to the EXPO theme “Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life”.
The Host Organiser provided with all the needed actions:
• Support to all the National organisers and contestants in terms of hotel reservation, purchase of the air-tickets, any other needed help or information
• Support to the Accompanying persons, other than the escorts and all other participants
• Support to the Jury members
• Definition of the travel schedule for all participants and sending out of the tickets to all the participating teams
• Realization of the Information System (through a sub-contractor) with the updating of application forms and details on how to submit the projects and all needed documents. Direct contacts by phone and by mail with National organisers and/or contestants were ensured on a daily basis.
• Organization of the scientific and cultural programme for contestants and other participants (Conference with Astronauts: The impact of Space Missions on Science; visit at the Science and Technology Museum Leonardo Da Vinci, visit at EXPO; visit at Bergamo Alta and Carrara Academy; EIROForum conference; boat tip and farewell party on Lake Maggiore)
• Definition of contracts with hotels and catering companies and other sub-contractors
• Organisation of the exhibition at the venue “La Fabbrica del Vapore” (map of the 104 stands split by field: biology, chemistry, computing, engineering, environment, food-Expo 2015, materials, mathematics, medicine, physics, social sciences) and organisation of the spaces/offices related to: European Commission, Jury, media team, secretariat, etc… Selection of contractors
• Dissemination and communication plan including invitations to schools and general public
• Contact with Italian journalists and with International journalists, as per the list defined by the European Commission. 

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)

Organizing the EUCYS 2015 set up an excellent platform for cooperation and exchange among outstanding young European scientists, enabling collaboration and knowledge transfer. It gave a great opportunity for networking and contributed to the efforts to raise the attractiveness for young talents, to develop their career in science and technology with respect to innovation.
The outstanding young students had the chance to meet others with similar interests, compete and present their innovative projects. Moreover, local students and schools were invited to visit the exhibition and examine the best works of their peers from different European and International countries. EUCYS 2015 was also an opportunity to identify new talents in science and technology and valorise them through awards.
The event program itself was planned to respond to the above issues and to maximize the impact.

Thanks to the implementation of a well-planned communication strategy, the public, as one of the core target groups, was engaged in science and technology, which led to increased public awareness of science development. Thus, the project contributed to raising interest of young students in science and raising of public understanding of science and technology, which are the long-term goals of the European Research Area in general.

The Contest was open to the public and the participation of local students and young researchers was fostered as much as possible, especially through a series of ad-hoc communications to the Lombardy schools and thanks to the collaboration of the Lombardy Directorate of the Ministry of Education.

EUCYS promotion to schools and to the large public started at the beginning of 2015, was intensified on the occasion of the Italian National Contest held in April 11-13, 2015 and continued till September 2015.

Moreover, a Call for the EUCYS 2015 Logo was launched in November 2014 with deadline on January 15, 2015. The Call was sent to the artistic high schools and academies throughout Italy.

EUCYS 2015 official logo