After this first and only reporting period, all the activities needed to be carried out in order to organise and celebrate EUCYS 2020/2021 have been completed, and the Contest itself have taken place successfully between the 17th and the 19th September. In short, this has been an unusual and exceptional EUCYS, given the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 Pandemic, which has severely affected the management, preparation and celebration of the Contest. For the first time in the EUCYS history, two editions have been celebrated in the same year, and also for the first time, the Contest has taken place in a hybrid format.
USAL has relied on the support of the Ministry of Universities, the of the Education Secretary’s Office of regional government, and with the industrial partner Iberdrola. After negotiation, these partners have contributed to the Action by providing funding, donating Prizes, and assisting in several action related to the Project, especially those that involve the promotion of science among young students.
158 prominent young scientists from 34 countries have presented their Projects and were been given the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with other international peers in a Virtual Environment devised specifically for this event. By competing, they were interviewed by a Jury board of 25 international scientists that outstand in their respective fields. Additionally, their scientific achievements gained visibility at a local level by means of an exhibition of their work at the physical venue, but also at the international level as their video presentations will remain in the eucys2021.usal.es website. Besides competing for a total of 40 Prizes, the Contestants also had the opportunity to get to know the inspirational work of top-level researchers who took part in the cultural programme. This cultural programme included a Plenary Talk by the Nobel Prize awardee Dr. William Phillips, and a round table titled “The challenges that young scientists will face in our world” with the speakers Prof. Adolfo García-Sastre, Prof. Laura Lechuga, Dr. Samuel Sánchez Ordoñez, Dr. Susana Marcos, and Dr. Ángeles G. Borrego.
The communication strategy of the action focuses the efforts of publicity to the local and regional audience, with a particular focus on the young people, by making an intense use of social media, even involving well known science outreach speakers into the promotional campaign.
In order to promote the event at the local level, several satellite actions have been carried out as well. A pre event outreach show with national recognised outreach talkers took place the day before the event with a total of 220 attendees (being this the maximum allowed audience given the restrictions). To increase the impact towards more specific targets, like high school students, the USAL partners Ministry of Science and the Education Secretary’s Office of the Regional Government have promoted the event by co organising student visits to the physical venue, and a workshop for national high school teachers tackling issues like innovation and scientific research in the classroom.
