START: Start Talking About Research Today

ongoing

Trinity College Dublin has co-ordinated European Researchers’ Nights every year since 2013. Building on this rich experience of public engagement and researcher development, the START project team will once again coordinate an event across multiple partners and locations in 2024 and 2025. START will spark deeper, more impactful engagement with the public and bring researchers and citizens together in dialogue about the role research and research careers play in our everyday lives. Based on the idea Start Talking About Research Today, the START partners will create a project that will activate various sites around Ireland to highlight the fact that research happens everywhere and takes many forms. START will provide an opportunity for the general public and researchers to engage with each other in new ways. Through a combination of in-person and virtual activities, demonstrations, tours, talks and more, START will promote the idea that research is a living, fundamental part of our society that impacts on and involves everyone. START will work to achieve a number of specific goals: 1. Create new dialogues between researchers and the general public that will lead to a deeper, more profound and sustained engagement with each other; 2. Raise awareness of research and research careers as positive forces in our society; 3. Highlight the role of the European Union in supporting research and discovery. Public engagement and communications workshops will be offered to all MSCA-funded researchers in the first instance, as well as other participants in the events on the Night. A series of activities and showcases will be held across a variety of locations to raise awareness in the months preceding European Researchers’ Night. The START project group has a wealth of talent and experience in public engagement activities, including previous ERN events, and the project team will draw on this expertise to ensure that START 2024/25 is grounded in best practice.