Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Wanderlust (Wanderlust is the passion for discovering)
Reporting period: 2020-05-18 to 2021-01-17
Our starting point was the Wanderlust spirit understood as the passion to discover the unknown, so we planned an event in which the research would represent that passion to know and discover new things. We wanted to create a unique experience where both children and adults could live and experience “the adventure of discovering”.
Due to the especial circumstances we are facing the activites were planned in a kind of “big” event on the 27th of November and 3 other pre-events. All activites had to be designed taking into account the covid19 restrictions that were established by the goverment.
The main objective of the event was still to show the work of researchers, although this year activities had to be different to keep the covid19 restrictions and so things needed to be shown differently. For most of the people, the researchers’ work is kind of unknown, or they are not sure of what they do. Problably they wouldn’t know how to define it if they were asked to. To change this, researchers took their work to the street to show people what they do, how they do it, what is the importance and dimension of their job.
On a more detailed level, the objectives of the program are:
• Show the dimension of research and the importance of the researchers’ job in our daily life.
• Show the importance of research, how society cannot move forward without research
• Generate interest and arouse curiosity for research in the general public.
• Display the fun side of research
• Foster scientific vocations in youngsters.
activities and participants. Nevertheless, we still offered a wide, varied and quality program.
We tried to offer varied activities, different from each other, and that are framed in different fields within the research in order to reach a greater and more varied number of people.
Before the proper event of the European Researchers’ Night on the 27th on November, we prepared 3 different pre-events in different locations, both in Zaragoza and in the surrounding area. In this way, we reached more people and a higher impact.
Even the circumstances we still were able to offer 66 activities and had a great success in all of them with less participants due to covid-19 restrictions. We had the participation of around 20 research centres or groups and more than 50 researchers. We had a total number of participants of more than 3000 people in on site activities, and around 2000 in online activities, youtube channel and tv.
We develop special contingency plan for keep all the mesures due to covid. We had a person dedicated to review all protocols and check all the risk on site.
Wanderlust has its own name and reputation and we have managed to convert a science action into a cultural festival for all types of audiences in which we merge science and performative arts.
The event has become a mandatory event for lovers of science and culture, and even this year it has been a reference event in the city's cultural programming.
The event took place in different locations and different dates, and most important of all, in very especial circumstances. We still reached more than 7000 people with pre-events,ERN event and online activities, showing them the fun side of science.
Organization has been extremely difficult this year due to the pandemic situation we are facing. Government restrictions were constantly changing depending on the sanitary situation and so the organization and planning was difficult even though we had a risk plan.
Even though all these problems, we have maintained some values that have allowed us to consolidate this event as a city event, a cultural event open to all citizens where we put into value the figure and job of researchers.
PROMOTION AND DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Over the past years, our main objective was to attract the maximum number of people to the event, transferring the idea that research can be for everyone, so we designed actions addressed to general public as well as to specific groups. But this year, due to the especial circumstances we are facing, we cannot organize a mass event, and although we still pay a lot of attention to raise awareness of the event, the attending public had to be much lower due to covid-19 restrictions.
Beyond this main objective, we also worked focusing on the following goals:
• Dissemination of the research activities of research centres and Institutes.
• Point out the value of the researchers’ job and its importance in our daily lives.
• Show in a clear and simple way what research is and how it is present in our day-to-day life.
• Generate interest and awareness in different research projects and programmes.
• Foster scientific vocations among young students.
As an element to highlight in both online and onsite activities, all workshops that needed a previous registration completed their capacity the same day opened the registrations and we even had a waiting list.
After the surveys carried out on the activities, the participants highlighted the great offer and diversity of workshops.
The audience profile of the European Researchers’ Night 2020 celebrated in Zaragoza was very diverse regarding gender and age. Some had attended previous editions of the event, and the majority showed a high interest in science. The most attractive disciplines according to attendees were Astronomy, Biology and Food. It is noteworthy that last year astronomy was not one of the top 5 disciplines of interest and this year it is the most attractive discipline according to attendees.
The general opinion is that the frequency of this type of activities in Zaragoza is insufficient (81%), which is perhaps why most of the attendees participated actively in several activities during the event.
The level of studies is high in general, more than 70% of the people who filled out the surveys have university studies. Nearly half of the public have scientific training (47.1%), but few of the attendees have professional work related to science (32%).
Compared to data collected during the study carried out in the 2019 edition, this year’s Researchers’ Night has hosted less visitants and participation in several activities has been lower, due to anti-COVID-19 protective measures.
The valuation of the activities has been thoroughly positive, with scores between 5 and 6.
Public considered that the work of researchers is very important but unrecognized in society. In addition, they believe that public institutions should offer greater support for scientific dissemination.
The activities carried out during the European Researchers’ Night in Zaragoza in 2020 have provided important contribution to the fulfilment of the initial objectives:
A high interest in science has been showed since the beginning by the youngest audience, and making research “entertaining” and amazing serves as a great motivation and inspiration to them.