The ERN is an event allowing to create a direct link between researchers and the public. This is useful both for researchers and the public. Researchers are trained for this specific type of communication and confront their research subjects with the public. This encounter brings interesting questions, but also joy and motivation for researchers to keep on their work. This is especially important for young researchers that can sometimes feel isolated. The public gains knowledge about scientific subjects, but more importantly about research itself: how it is to work in a lab, how do researchers get funding for their works, how much does this and this cost... These questions about detail provide information about "real" research, and not only the image of it that exist in TV Shows, or in some parts of social media, very suspicious about research. With this information, people can make up their mind, change their views, to adjust to the testimonies and answers of the researchers in front of them.
With a lockdown situation, and an omnipresent scientific subject (COVID-19), organizing an event allowing to join a friendly and playful encounter to cheer up the minds, and strong scientific exchanges with the participation of researchers themselves is particularly important.