Sharing Researchers’ Passion for Evidences and Resilience

Project Information

SHARPER

Grant agreement ID: 818977

DOI

10.3030/818977

Project closed

EC signature date 27 June 2018

Start date 10 May 2018

End date 9 December 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 1 121 203,75

EU contribution

€ 790 400,00

Coordinated by

PSIQUADRO SOCIETA' COOPERATIVA - IMPRESA SOCIALE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SHARPER (Sharing Researchers’ Passion for Evidences and Resilience)

Reporting period: 2019-03-10 to 2019-12-09

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The SHARPER goal is to make the researchers’ passions accessible and comprehensible to everybody, starting from young generations, through engaging communication formats and activities that take place in unusual venues and make the
researchers’ life a shared experience with a large audience in Italy. Researchers are evidences hunters, their passion for
facts, data and observations collected, accumulated and interpreted with a constant and patient day by day activity, is one of
the researchers’ main features. It is usually combined with their ability and commitment to use these evidences to tackle
some of the more complex issues that are relevant to all of us: from fundamental research problems such as those related to
the origin of the Universe or the structure of our brain to technological endeavours and societal challenges. The constant
quest for evidences reveals, not only their insatiable curiosity but also their passion for challenging the limits of our
knowledge and innovate going beyond the known, being able to accept and adapt to the changes or, in a sentence, to show
a profound passion for resilience. The combination of these researchers’ passions for identifying and understanding facts
and for wisely adapt and evolve by innovating and the opportunity for citizens to meet them, seems to be vital in a constantly
changing society. The acronym SHARPER - Sharing Researchers’ Passion for Evidences and Resilience summarizes all these elements.
SHARPER night was held in 12 cities: Trieste, Pavia, Ancona, Macerata, Perugia, L'Aquila, Napoli, Caserta, Palermo, Catania, Cagliari and Nuoro.

--- To convey the message that a researcher is a passionate person who loves to engage with complex issues relying on facts and observations that can be accessible to everyone to plan the future and innovate;
--- To stress that the researchers enjoy the dialogue with all the social actors to reach common goals through a shared knowledge;
--- To motivate young students to enter researcher careers and become key actors of the future;
--- To tell that strong collaboration between researchers and citizens aiming together at excellence triggers innovation;
--- To broaden the meaning of what we call researchers beyond any stereotypes;
--- To provide motivated audiences with opportunities of deeper knowledge of the researchers’ work;
--- To encourage children to discover researchers as role models because they are passionate and knowledgeable;
--- To use researchers’ emotions and enthusiasm to make excellent research accessible and comprehensible to everyone, from young students to adults;
--- To develop a national community of researchers that are excellent communicators

The project has reached its objectives and proved to be succesful.

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

- Conception, production and display of promotional material distributed in public spaces
- Pre events
- Paper distribution materials (postcards, A3 posters, event programmes, flyer, etc)
- Give aways ( T-shirts, pins, stickers, shoppers,balloons, wristbands, mugs, pencils, pen, hats, etc)
- Promotional street furniture (roll ups, totems, rigid posters, cardboard totems)
- Public Advertising (billboards, road posters, PVC banners, banners on public transport, etc)
- Press conferences: 2 national press conference in Rome - 16 local press conferences

Website analytics : www.sharper-night.eu
-- 140855 unique visitors,
-- 184.289 page visualisations,
-- 35745 downloads of pdf programmes

Social Media Report
--- Facebook Page @sharper.night
-- Total like to the page: 11.979 (+ 11,6% from 2018 to 2019)
-- 650.000 post visualizations (in September 2018 and September 2019)
-- 28950 interactions with posts (in September 2018 and September 2019)
--- Instagram Account
-- more than 3500 reached accounts
-- 46926 impressions
-- 3929 actions on account
--- Twitter account
-- #sharpernight hashtag in twitter national tendencies on 28/09/2018 and 27/09/2019

--- Sending of newsletters by more than 80 institution

--- Overall number of people made aware of the ERN and its objectives (2018 + 2019): 1.700.000

A very wide offer of different activities has been implemented for an overall number of 1164 (567 in 2018 and 597 in 2019)
different activities spread in 12 town.
In detail:
--- Ancona: 60 activities
--- Cagliari: 117 activities
--- Catania: 162 activities
--- Caserta: 51 activities
--- L’Aquila: 96 activities
--- Macerata: 74 activities
--- Napoli: 108 activities
--- Nuoro: 80 activities
--- Pavia: 53 activities
--- Palermo: 104 activities
--- Perugia: 165 activities
--- Trieste: 94 activities

Mix of hands-on experiments, guided visits, games, shows, informal talks, conference,
interactive presentations, exhibitions, competitions, challenges with researchers, and
European corners;
In two years (2018 and 2019)
--- Active involvement of 7653 researchers, of whom:
-- 125 having benefitted from SMC schemes;
-- 180 having benefitted from another EU support (FP 7/HORIZON 2020);

226.000 visitors having taken part in the activities offered.

---Publication of numerous press releases at overall and local levels
-- more than 400 articles issued on on-line and off-line newspapers
-- 38 radio issues
-- 85 TV programmes hosted SHARPER representatives of mentioned the project at local and national level
-- Press coverage on 53 national editions and 504 local editions.

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)

The SHARPER project activities have been characterized by considerable complexity.
In fact, coordinating the activity in 12 cities - very different for institutions and cultures - was a real challenge in terms of organization, content and communication. In any case, it can be said that the challenge has been interpreted appropriately, given that
the experience on formats and communication between researchers and the public is quite significant, given what has already been achieved in recent years.
An evaluation to list the main potentials and the limits of what had been achieved in 2018 was used to plan the activities of 2019 adequately.

--- Main conclusions:
-- typology of visitors: mostly students although different distribution according to the city considered, relatively high level, mainly coming from the regional area hosting the events, relative balance in gender(also different form city to city);
-- overall positive feedback about the event (interest, locations, venues, contacts with researchers, schedule, concrete organization) and high appreciation of the activities by the different audiences;
-- researchers perceived as a reliable source of information about science, technology and the social impact of research
-- increased number and the variety of opportunities for kids and teenagers to meet researchers and develop constant motivational programmes towards research career

--- Suggestions for improvements:
-- make an accurate selection of researchers for different formats, offering some guidelines on how to communicate (timing, ways, active involvement of the public)
-- extend training opportunity for researchers in order to meet and communicate adequately with the various audiences
-- provide the audience with new research stories and with examples of scientists dealing with common problems such as pollution, biomedical innovations or the study of the population
-- suggested to provide general topics so that the public can easily create their personal paths among the program activities.

Sharper in 12 cities

Sharper in Trieste

Sharper map

Sharper Researchers in Catania

Sharper in the city

Sharper in Naples

Sharper in Cagliari

Sharper Researchers in Trieste

Sharper researchers in Naples

Sharper Express

Sharper Researchers in Perugia