Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RENA (REsearchers\' Nights organized by Athens area Research Institutions to convey the science benefits to the public and motivate young people to science careers)

Teaser

o To help the public establish the following concepts on Research and Researchers: o Researchers are not isolated in their labs, they can be found everywhere around us in real life activities; They are everyday people with their own hobbies and their own dedication to their...

Summary

o To help the public establish the following concepts on Research and Researchers:
o Researchers are not isolated in their labs, they can be found everywhere around us in real life activities; They are everyday people with their own hobbies and their own dedication to their
very interesting work;
o Research is the only way to improve and extend our knowledge of the world and its workings;
o Research is the necessary process to lead us to technological progress and higher life quality;
o To motivate the young people to follow research careers:
o The research profession, in any scientific field, is a very interesting, exciting and highly rewarding job.
As a Researcher:
o You are constantly learning new things, never getting bored;
o You have always the feeling of accomplishment ;
o You can deploy and develop your full intellectual potential ;
o You will be having as much fun as playing with your toys.

The Researchers\' Night project RENA has reached its objectives and proved to be quite successful.

Work performed

\"1. Awareness
o Conception, realisation of promotional material, banners of different formats, posters of various formats, roll ups, programmes, invitations, programmes, postcards, cards for pre-events, give away such as,
pens, stickers, thematic fliers… displayed during the pre-events and the period immediately prior to the main event;
o Public advertising: display of big banners outside the NHRF premisesand outside of the main event venue
o Display of postcards and cards for pre-events in all Athens Universities, in the City centre, in the Thision area, in public and private schools, cafés, restaurants and partner institutes;
o Publication of articles, announcements interviews in written press: children and parents\' magazines, public magazines, national and local newspapers;
o Publication of over 25 press releases circulated in numerous waves from all partners,
o Airing of announcements, advertising, interviews, appearance of coordinator through national and local radio and TV stations;
o Sending invitations to all public and private schools in the Attica area, Ministry of Education, Universities, notably based on numerous partners\' mailing lists;
o Promotion during other public and educational events:
o Stand at the interactive exhibition of the Athens Science Festival (25-29 April 2017), Demokritos Hellenic Forum for Science and Innovation, Demokritos Summer School, NOA special nights, NOA Summer
School;
o NOA Astronomy pre-events: evening with sky observations at Thission and Penteli premises; Sky observations Night at Flisvos Marina in cooperation with the Astronomical Association of Sparta.
o NHRF pre-event for children: Nine interactive activities, games, and hands on experiments concerning biology, physics, and chemistry aiming to promote the profession of the researcher,
promotion of EU activities via distribution of EU children related materials;
o HCMR + RC Athena pre-event for students and families, at the city of Lavrion. Activities in Geology, Marine environment and Informatics applications.
o Athena RC pre-event on informatics in Lavrion as above: interactive activities, robots, photo exhibitions... ;
o NCSR ‘Demokritos’ pre-event for students: science activities, the Physics of sports and the importance the Olympic ideals;
o Hellenic Institute Pasteur, Athens pre-event: presentation of young researchers achievements;
o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of project website www.renathens.gr, of which the welcome page hosted links to RENA 2017 (information on main event and pre-events, series of articles
about activities planned, info on photo competition RC \"\"Athena\"\", \"\"What is a digital technology to you?\"\", SciCo quiz \"\"discover the researcher in you\"\", call for volunteers, evaluation forms for attendees, FAQs,
links to social media…);
o 15.275 visitors and 144.011 page views;
o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of social networks profiles: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (hashtag #rengreece);
o Promotional campaign through Facebook as the most popular social media in Greece;
o Social media: 3.247 page likes (At 2016 page likes was 2.620). Total organic reach was over 5.500 users during September (picks during the pre-event dates and the main event date);
o 7 interviews by TechTalksCentral available as podcasts;
o Over 2.000.0000 people made aware of the European Researchers \'Night and its objectives.

2.Researchers\' Night activities
o Offer of activities as described in the Annex I part B of the Grant Agreement, namely:
o Numerous hands-on activities, a large fraction of which specifically addressing kids, students and families;
o Over 20 science shows;
o Several different workshops;
o Several specific kids-oriented activities;;
o Guided visits in participating institutions (in particular aquarium and parallel events scientific installations and exhibitions);
o Star gazing sessions (at Kryoneri Corinth);
o Competitions and games (numerous game areas);
o Theatre performance\"

Final results

o Collection and analysis of over 2.400 feedbacks, namely:
o Polls from 1.435 visitors;
o Questionnaires prior and during the event addressing researchers;
o Main conclusions:
o Typology of visitors: mostly higher educated women, in particular young ones;
o Overall positive feedback about the events
o Knowledge about the event: mainly through social networks and web pages;
o Increased number of visitors for the parallel events taking place in different cities of Greece during the night;
o Most successful activities: Interactive programs, experiments, 3D Dome presentations, robotics and telescopes;
o Improved their opinion about Greek researchers : 77%;
o Conviction that EU strongly supports research in Greece is constantly 11% for 2017 and previous events;
o Facing difficulties during the event:15% faced some difficulties during the event;
o 99% intend to take part in future similar events;
o £Increased interest for research careers amongst the students(80%);
o Dominant characteristics of researcher’s profile: intelligence, patience and curiosity;
o Favourite scientific area: space for both male and females, less popular economics for female and human sciences for male;
o Conviction that research has a very positive influence mainly through innovation and improvement of life;
o Small percentage of students (about 30%) having visited a Research Centre before

Website & more info

More info: http://www.renathens.gr/.