2014-2015 Researchers' Night: The Greek events

ended

ReN2014-5 events will be organized during 2014 and 2015 and will take place in six major cities: i) Athens, Greece’s capital, ii) Thessaloniki, iii) Patras, iv) Heraklion, v) Volos and for the first time in vi) Corfu, the capital of the Ionian Islands. These cities are spread almost nation-wide and cover more than two-thirds of Greece’s total population ensuring a first-hand experience of ReN2014-5 activities from a large audience. The consortium consists of prestigious universities and research centres which over the years have built extended networks that ensure maximum visibility of the events. TV, Radio spots and interviews of highly-profiled researchers are foreseen, at national level, spreading the messages throughout the country while, at local level, apart from traditional communication ways of promotions, other innovative ones, such as the “taxi of researcher” will be used to provoke the curiosity of local communities. The awareness campaign will target the general public however special focus will be given on University students by explaining the benefits of the researcher’s profession thus playing a small but not insignificant role to the realization of the Horizon 2020 which calls out for more researchers within Europe. The events will be organized, mainly, in central places of the cities and will give the possibility of interaction between the public and the researchers throughout various activities which will be related to the problems of the local community and the solutions that researchers are able to provide, thus intriguing the public’s interest. Iit is estimated, conservatively, that ReN2014-5 messages will reach at least one million people nation-wide while more than 20.000 people will actually participate in the events each year. The impact of the events will be measured using quantitative data from questionnaires, number of participants and qualitative data such as references in media during the post-event days.