o Collection, analysis and processing of 1.016 questionnaires filled in from visitors and 201 from researchers involved in the activities, as well as conduction of an analysis of media and social media impact; Press review through automated tool;
o Main conclusions:
o Visitors:
o Typology of visitors: 57 % female and 43 % male, mostly adult audience (72%), but rather young (32% are between 18 and 25 years old) with respect to usual science education events, most with higher education background (75 %), mainly in groups of 2 to 3 people, 66 % newcomers, 64% feeling “Scientific”, mostly local origin (51 % 10-30 minutes distance, 27 % less than 10 minutes), audience used to visit regularly museums, conferences or other cultural activities;
o Knowledge about the event: 30% from family and friends, 13% from professional environment, 11% by advertisement or poster in the city.
o Average visit duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes; visitors participated in 3 activities on average during the event.
o Motivation for attending: 48% by curiosity, 39% through interest of research and 39 % through interest for cultural events;
o Average number of contacts with researchers: mostly contacts with 5 researchers on average, and exchanges with 4 researchers on average;
o Overall positive feedback about the events (activities, contacts with researchers, venues and locations, concrete organisation, scheduling) (rating 8/10);
o 75 % respondents expressing their intention to take part in a future similar event;
o 84 % prepared to recommend participation to others;
o Key words fro qualifying the event: “interesting”, “educational”, “playful”, “friendly”, “discovery”, “curiosity”, “rewarding”, “pleasant”, “entertaining”, “fascinating”:
o Most successful activities: “Speed Searching” and “The great participatory experience”
o Researchers:
o Typology of researchers: 55 % newcomers.
o Motivation for participating: possibility to exchange with the public and colleagues, interest for popularization and the occasion to share their knowledge and passion are the main reasons for the researchers to participate in the ERN event;
o Factors of engagement: o To participate in a good popularization programme; o Because your research lends itself good to popularization; o Because you feel capable of/helped to do it; o Because it is a task to do in a program in which you participate in; o Motivations for popularising research: in more general terms, science popularization is motivated by a variety of reasons, ranging from gaining feedback from the public on the researcher activity, to the pleasure for sharing a passion. No single motivation items stands out with respect to the others; o Interactions with the public: most of the researchers (48%) could interact with more than 30 persons; o Vision of the public from the researchers:most researchers pointed out a particularly motivated, interested and curious public.
