Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EXPLORATHON-4D (EXPLORATHON'16 and EXPLORATHON'17 - EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS' NIGHT SCOTLAND)
Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2018-01-31
Participation has meant that the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Programme has achieved an enviable degree of visibility across Scotland. We have raised the profile of our research, our researchers, Horizon 2020 and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Programme. This has been instrumental in breaking down barriers to communication and have shown researchers as people with extraordinary jobs and showcased research as an important career path.
o Conception, production and display of promotional material: flyers, banners, programmes…;
o Public advertising: outdoors banners and pop pup banners at key venues;
o Publication of articles, interviews, announcements in magazines;
o airing of promotional spots, announcements, interviews through local radio stations (Aberdeen, Glasgow)
o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of project website, namely www.explorathon.co.uk ;
o Links with popular and institutional websites;
o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of social networks profiles (Facebook, Twitter) with an emphasis put on young people;
o 3,3 million Twitter impressions;
o Posting of announcements, advertising etc. on E-zines and newsletters;
o Pre-event: launch of a competition specifically addressed to social media users;
o Several hundreds of people made aware about the European Researchers' Night and its objectives.
Overview of the results of the Awareness Campaign 2017
o Conception, production and display of promotional material: flyers, banners, programmes;
o Public advertising: outdoors banners and pop pup banners at key venues; o Publication of articles, interviews, announcements in magazines;
o Airing of promotional spots, announcements, interviews through local radio stations -
Aberdeen (Original 106fm) and Glasgow; o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of project website, namely www.explorathon.co.uk ;
o Links with popular and institutional websites;
o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of social networks profiles (Facebook,
Twitter) with an emphasis put on young people; o Over 4 million reached through social media and traditional advertising; o Posting of announcements, advertising etc. on E-zines and newsletters;
o Several hundreds of people made aware about the European Researchers' Night and its objectives.
Activities on the night-Overview of Results 2016
o Offer of the activities as planned in the Annex I Part B to the Grant Agreement, namely:
o Organisation of 88 events
o Involvement of the Universities of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews and the Beltane Network of the four universities in Edinburgh –Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier, Heriot-Watt and Queen Margaret;
o Common theme: "Research for all" “Innovation, Architecture and Design”;
o Engagement with the Scottish STEM Ambassador Network (over 6.000 Ambassadors from all walks of life);
o Organisation of multi-exhibit areas in shopping centres and doors open approach o, research and industrial
Activities on the night-Overview of Results 2017
o Offer of the activities as described in the Annex I B to the gran Agreement, namely:
o Organisation of over 50 events across Scotland;
o Involvement of the Universities of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews and the Beltane Network of the four universities in Edinburgh –Edinburgh,
Edinburgh Napier, Heriot-Watt and Queen Margaret; o Common theme: "Research for all" “History, Heritage and Archaeology”;
o Engagement with the Scottish STEM Ambassador Network (over 6.000
Ambassadors from all walks of life); o Organisation of multi-exhibit areas in shopping centres and doors open approach of, research and industrial working environments;
o Active involvement of 766 researchers, of whom:
o 26 having benefitted from SMC scheme;
o 53 having benefitted from another EU-support (FP 7, HORIZON 2020);
o 10.998 visitors having taken part in the activities offered.
o Collection, analysis and processing of 502 feedbacks, based on:
o The initial online survey, "enrolment questionnaire" (mail address);
o A longer survey requesting feedback on the events including behaviour change) as well as further demographic information;
o Main conclusions:
o Typology of visitors: 43,5 % responders aged 22-25, 21,7 % aged 62-65, relative gender balance, 33 % postgraduate, 32,5 % undergraduate, 17,1 %college, 15,4 % secondary school and 2 % primary school, mostly white (89,4 %), with 7,1 % Asian, 2,4 % mixed or multiple ethnic
groups, and others 1,2 %;
o Overall positive feedback regarding the events( activities, interest, contacts with researchers, venues and locations, scheduling, concrete organisation);
o General positive feedback also from researchers involved;
o Some improvements planned for the event 2017:
o To improve data collection methods so that more survey respondents are enrolled and more of those enrolled respond to the follow-up survey (or an equivalent);
o To refine survey questions further, there are still issues with accessibility and usefulness;
o To better incorporate insights from bespoke evaluations into the overall event evaluation;
o To continue to encourage creative means of evaluation;
o To invest further in a highly-trained team of evaluation volunteers (possibly with unified training across Scotland).
Overview of the Results 2017
o Engagement of qualitative research scientists to undertake intensive training in o Evaluation, interview techniques using social media;
o Analysing qualitative data from questionnaires; (training by Eric Jensen from www.methodsforchange.org) . o Added value of such approach:
o Increase the ownership of the evaluation process by the volunteers who will be able to design bespoke evaluation processes for each of the events;
o Providing training coupled to real opportunities to put evaluation skills into practice, thus enabling a deep and valuable learning experience for the volunteers;
o Enabling creative evaluation practices be developed and produce useful resources such as vox-pops, infographics and other visual feedback as well as increased response rates for the wide variety of events;
o Filling in of on-line surveys with the assistance of volunteer evaluators at ticketed events such as at the Glasgow Science Centre;
o Filling in of paper questionnaires found on seats) at traditional talk events; o Graffiti walls, sticker charts and vox pops for drop in activities;
o Encouragement to attendees to comment on their experiences and respond to questions on Twitter and other social media platforms;
o On-line survey addressed to all researchers involved;
o Sample: at least feedback from 50% of the researchers involved and a minimum of 400 (5%) participants’ from the four cities through the various channels.