Periodic Reporting for period 2 - B-FUTURE (BACK TO THE FUTURE)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-02-01 do 2019-11-30
The ”B-FUTURE “ project is conceived with the aim of bringing citizens closer to the world of research, increasing awareness about the importance of scientific activity for the concrete development of civil society and attracting young generation to research career opportunities.Promoted by an integrated team under the coordination of Neuromed Foundation, the project foresaw 2 ERN editions with 2-day events of open labs where citizens, especially students, had come into direct contact with researchers,“knowing by experimenting" and better understanding the role of research for the Europe of tomorrow. The overall objectives were highlighting research as main contribution to growth and competitiveness, ensuring the circulation and exchange of ideas, promoting equality and sharing with the public the means to access research, to understand its impact.
The activities for the period covered by the report (1.04.18 – 30.11.19) followed an integrated program, perfectly performed to attract the largest possible number of participants to the ERN and took place in 2 Italian regions (Molise and Campania), with a support of an extended partnership. A long awareness campaign for the entire duration of the project has been implemented communicating science to younger people particularly students of primary and secondary schools to demonstrate that being part of research is being the memory of the past and the future at the same time. The launch of the project was made in the wonderful venue of the Royal Palace of Caserta with an “incredible” B-FUTURE Flash Mob that involved researchers, dancers, students, general public.With its 2 editions, during the B-FUTURE ERN, as in the famous film, participants came back to the past to better know life origins and then projected into the future to experience new technologies imagining what the 'next step' in that progression would be. The ERN 2018 saw from 24/09/18 to 27/09/18 the research week with the opening of Neuromed Research labs to school visits in Molise (Pozzilli, Technological Park) and Campania (Caserta, Cyber Brain Hub). Students entered in the fantastic world of science where they met new characters "researchers", making discoveries and living exciting experiences in a stimulant and funny way. On Friday 28/09/18, the B-FUTURE was a night full of events, starting with an international conference with the participation of researchers involved in Marie Curie or other European projects within the Italian IRCCS discussing about research careers opportunities with representatives of the Italian Ministry for Research, the Italian Ministry of Health and the European Commission. During the ERN all visitors were involved in hands-on activities, informal talks with researchers, guided tours to the lab, Brain Bee, quiz competition, themed Museum and also a PubMed performance to introduce biomedical research to the general public. The event had a great success with about 6.000 visitors and relevant media results.On 29/09/2018 a workshop on “Scientific communication during the fake news era” took place in Caserta – Belvedere of San Leucio – with the involvement of journalists, researchers and national experts. The focus on such relevant problem for general health policies let the creation of a working group (still active) working on organizing training activities for journalists, researchers, economists on scientific communication. The ERN 2019 was announced with a show in the main square of Caserta on September 20th 2019 were researchers and students animated the ”Pub-Med”. Joking on the name of the main portal of biomedical scientific papers, researchers prepared molecular cocktail for general public introducing their research activities and answering to questions arising about research importance, its relevance for our lives and careers opportunities for young people. To improve the success of the first edition, during the research week from 23/09 to 26/09/19 Neuromed researchers performed the B_FUTURE Researchers Tour in the schools of Molise e Campania with 42 schools and 8000 students involved in the experiments and made aware of the European Researchers' Night and its objectives. The B-FUTURE ERN 2019 started with a workshop on Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions addressed to all IRCCS researchers and chaired by Stefano D’Orilia, call coordinator Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions IF. At the presence of national, regional and local authorities, the B-FUTURE ERN was officially opened at 17.30 with a research tour to discover “"The research of the future, the future of research".About 7.000 people (mainly families and students) were directly involved in the activities during the events, with the contribution of 220 researchers, 2 Reportages, 1 short movie including back stages, about 4000 attendees to science dinner, about 1.5 million of people reached, about 160 paper questionnaires with150 feedback to the poll questions on the event, 1 intervention study was realized. The final event was on 28/09/19 at the Royal Palace of Caserta with an amazing performance: "Dance Well", an integrated show involving Parkisons’ patients and professional dancers with dance and music including general public (more of 1000 attendees ) to demonstrate the importance of biomedical research and communicate the values of integration and no discrimination for all human beings. As described before, the B-FUTURE ERN project had important results in the regions involved, taking into account both preparatory phases and the ERN events. According to the assessment reports, based on different tools to collect evidence quantitative and qualitative, the 2 editions improved for general public the awareness of research relevance for growth and our daily lives, and, overall let students enter the fascinating world of research and innovation considering it as a possible career opportunity. According to these results, Neuromed Foundation and its partnership established a permanent working group for training students and defining new modalities for dissemination and involvement of young generation in scientific activities.
Both B-Future editions of ERN 2018-2019 were conceived with the aim of bringing citizens closer to the world of research increasing awareness about the importance of scientific activity for the development of civil society. To reach these aims, the project proposal had a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on life sciences -starting from neuroscience- and involving engineering, math, physics without forgetting history, philosophy and art. Through the realization of project activities and the elaboration of tools of analysis, it was possible to verify the concrete public recognition about researchers and the increase of scientific careers' popularity.After one year and a half of activities implemented within the B_FUTURE framework it is clear that the process to obtain a real impact cannot be interrupted or related to the “lump” project. It is necessary to go further continuing with a multidisciplinary approach and the involvement of several stakeholders from different sectors to improve research awareness and to have at the same time an high social impact on thematic priorities such as environment protection, health prevention and general wellbeing. Research and innovation, supported by education, according to B-FUTURE results, can proceed in a unique way helping us to reach a sustainable future for all.