A Researchers' Night in The Mediterranean - Connecting Minds Through Research, Knowledge, and Culture

ongoing

ERN-Apulia+MED targets to bring Citizens cERN-Apulia+ targets to bring Apulian Citizens closer to Researchers and viceversa and further extend the initiatives outside the region in the Mediterranean Area and extra-EU countries (at no cost), involving major public universities and Public and Private Research Institutions and representative schools. The large capacity of beneficiaries was already demonstrated in the past EU-funded projects for 2018- 2021 Nights and the continuation of activities in the unfunded 2022-2023 Nights. Here the initiatives for Citizens involvement will be further scaled up. Main objectives are: - to implement pre-events, the 2024 and 2025 ERNs and some post-events, with particular attention to students, industrial and professional organizations, municipalities and public administrations, already actively involved in the past editions; - to increase public awareness and recognition of the importance and impact of research in daily life, with specific examples from ICT to health and life sciences, from elementary particle to cultural heritage, etc; - to stimulate curiosity and interest and explain the fascinating world and the opportunities in research, especially to the youngest as a mean to encourage them to embark scientific careers; - to establish a tight connection among population/institutions and researchers to continue during the year; - to prepare and publicize dissemination materials along with scientific games and site visits (including laboratories and sites of cultural interest) to be available during the whole year for the general public; - to explain the spirit and opportunities of the European Research Area, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and the principles of “The European Charter for Researchers”; to reach a number of Facebook Impressions >1.5M and Reach >400k, Youtube Views > 30k and watch time > 1000h, followers close to 200k, participants > 100k (among all the various initiatives) and a participants to the ERN > 50k.