Science is for all of us

Project Information

Sci4all

Grant agreement ID: 819006

DOI

10.3030/819006

Project closed

EC signature date 27 June 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 149 132,50

EU contribution

€ 149 132,50

Coordinated by

PRACTICAL ROBOTICS INSTITUTE AUSTRIA (PRIA) ZUR FORDERUNG DES WISSENSCHAFTLICH-TECHNISCHEM NACHWUCHSES UBER ROBOTIK IN OSTERREICH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Sci4all (Science is for all of us)

Reporting period: 2019-03-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

o Enhancing both public knowledge and understanding of science
o Motivating and inspiring youth to enjoy, understand and pursue STEM by connecting them with outstanding scientists and innovations.
o Enhancing the recognition of researchers and their role in society
o Bringing the public and science closer together and facilitate a bidirectional flow of information using citizen science
o Explaining the benefits of research to the public and how it influences daily life
o Increasing public awareness of the diversity of scientific research
o Enabling people to become closer to and more involved with cultural heritage but also show diverse cultural heritage topics
o Offering an exciting learning experience that would help celebrate diversity and promote intercultural appreciation, mutual understanding and respect.
o Enabling a greater visibility for research centres, students, researchers, college teachers and innovative projects

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

Awareness:
o Conception, production and display of promotional material, namely folders, programmes, roll-ups, sent to numerous schools in Vienna, as well as to the participants in the various activities, displayed during public events;
o Publication of over 20 promotional articles in written press (newspapers and magazines);
o Publication of several press releases;
o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of project website, namely http://sci4all.eu; 24.321 views by 4.901 unique visitors; 8.120 sessions (June to October 2019), of which 2.391 during the last week prior to the event;
o Publication of over 65 promotional articles on on-line accounts of newspapers and magazines as well as mentions in event calendars;
o Publication of over 30 postings on Twitter from European Researchers’ Night Twitter page
o Publication of over 40 postings on Facebook from PRIA’s European Researchers’ Night Facebook page as well as multiple postings by exhibitors and other institutes as well as private persons;
o Several postings on Xing and LinkedIn;
o Several hundred thousands people made aware of the Researchers' night and its objectives.
Event:
o Offer of the activities as planned in the Annex I Part B to the Grant Agreement, namely:
o 11 different activities including:
o 42 science booths;
o 8 school workshops;
o 1 media talk;
o 3 cultural heritage stations;
o 9 workshops;
o 8 participants at EU science slam finals;
o 1 education congress;
o 4 citizen science challenge stations;
o 6 EU Corner stations;
o 4 arts and artistic research stations;
o 1 "Die Technik ist weiblich” station as well as
o several social activities;
o The created programme involved researchers from diverse research and educational institutions and companies, namely:
o 22 universities:
o 2 high schools
o 12 non-university research institutes:
o 11 non-government organizations:
o 11 companies:
o 7 government initiatives and organizations:
o Active involvement of 240 researchers, of whom:
o 104 female and 136 male;
o 10 having benefitted from MSC schemes;
o 36 having benefitted from another EU support (FP7, HORIZON 2020);
o The event was attended by over 5.100 visitors

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)

o Typology of visitors: the event was attended by over 5.100 visitors, of whom 20% were under 10, 30% aged 10-20, 15% 20-40, 25% 40-60 and 10% 55-80 years), with about 40 % female and 60 % male attendees.
o During the events 90 parents and adult visitors were also interviewed with the aim to summarize their view of the event as well as the child’s interest in STEM and indicating how likely they would be to participate in another event in the future.
o Qualitative semi-structured interviews and surveys with 209 pupils and students containing a consistent set of questions about their media preferences. The interviews contained questions how often they use media, which kind of media, who/whom do they trust and what would they expect from media in the future. The idea was to use the findings to approach them easier and better next year.
o We interviewed 17 researchers using a set of consistent and structured questions to rate and comment their experience participating in the event.
o Main conclusions:
o Parents and teachers:
o Parents, which were mostly accompanied by small children (3-8 years) on the event, noticed that their children gave very positive feedback and showed a lot of enthusiasms, participating particularly gladly in the research rally and hands-on activities. Especially they liked the workshops and stations, where they could play and program robots and learn about DNK, medicine, biology and to take part in different chemical experiments.
o Parents and visitors valued the possibility to discuss with the researchers their different topics such as climate change, technology, economy and health. They also appreciated that we involved several art related station and showed that there are a lot of possibilities to perform research in this domain.
o Almost 61,4 % rated the event with 5 of 5 stars with further 21,6 % that gave 4 of 5 stars, thus stating that the event has fulfilled their expectations. Besides, 81 % valued the amount of knowledge they gathered and 67 % rated the event organization as great or good.
o The interest in participating in a future similar event showed 96,7 % adult visitors are very interested (65,2 %) or at least somewhat interested (31,5 %).
o Pupils and students:
o When asked how often they use particular media channels, almost 44% stated that they never read newspapers, 70 % never read magazines, 57 % never listen to any radio channel, 74% never use Facebook and further 54% never use Twitter. Nevertheless, 76% of the pupils stated that they visit often or even on a daily basis Instagram.
o Being asked, whom they trust when they use the media, it was interesting to see that they mostly (52,2 %) trust the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). Only 18,2 % trust what they read on Instagram and 26,3 % what they see on private TV stations. Just 3% show any confidence in content that they find on Facebook.
o When asked, what is important for them, when they use media, more than 73 % noticed that they prefer short, and current news from all over the world, further 71,2 % stated that the accuracy of information is of high importance for them and 51,7 % said that the news has to contain many facts.
o Generally, in order to read the information 42% pupils stated that it should be relevant for them and cover youth related topics.
o Many of them would like to get more science and education content provided on the national media channels.
o Researchers:
o 70,6% researchers indicated that the event completely met their expectations by giving five of five points and further 29,4 % rated that the event mostly met their expectations by giving four of five points.
o Asked to rate for which purposes they could use the event, the researchers answered that they mostly presented research results and new developments.
o They prized the wide range of participants and visitors, very engaged public and good organization of the event.
o We have got the confirmation of possible future participation by about 88,3202c % (82,4 % strongly agree and 5,9 % agree) of the participating researchers. Moreover, 69,2 % would recommend the event to colleagues.

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