Work performed:
• Running of the public awareness campaign of the European Researchers’ Night and its objectives;
• Organisation of the European Researchers’ Night event;
• Evaluation of the perception of research and assessment of the overall organisation of the European Researchers’ Night event and specific activities;
• Management of the project.
An overall communication guideline for the ERN was developed early on in the project, aimed at spreading awareness of the event and reach as many people as possible in a coordinated and efficient manner. The driving principle behind the development of the communication guideline was to ensure that the core communication outputs are clear, every partner shares the event’s resources and promotional materials, and the campaign is implemented jointly and strategically. The communication guideline defined the main target groups, communication channels, key visuals, core messages and activities. The event promotion was extensively done before, during and after the event by the different beneficiaries of the consortium through the established communication channels.
The European Researchers’ Night was organized on 27 November 2020. Because of worsening pandemic situation in Moldova in this period, the event was focused especially on online activities: contests and quizzes for children and students, preparation and publishing on the web site of the event videos of lectures, experiments, presentations of research units, research projects, outputs, live transmissions from research centers and laboratories.
The survey on problems faced by the scientific community of the Republic of Moldova identified that the organizers of the Researchers' Night event should pay a special attention to the presentation of international cooperation projects, the contribution of young researchers, the successful implementation of the projects in various socio-economic fields.
The responses on event evaluation survey showed that the involvement of young scholars and their desire to build a career in research and innovation is determined by the level and quality of information on achievements and status in the field, the attractiveness and authority of academia, the role of science and scientists in society, as well as the general level of socio-economic development of the country. The appreciation of the 2020 edition of event was predominantly positive, 69% of respondent evaluating the event as very interesting (39%) and interesting (30%). All the once, the respondents mentioned that there was a lack of face-to-face interactivity.
During the implementation of the MODERNight-2020 project the management, coordination and continue improvement and monitoring were insured. The efficient management was facilitated by small and committed team. One of the strengths was that all partners were from the Republic of Moldova and spoke the same language directly and figuratively. The dedication of Consortium partners, but also other stakeholders involved in organisation of the event, contributed to a successful delivery of the event.
