STORIES · European Researcher's Night in France

European Researcher's Night in France

Science Dissemination faces many differents issues. We adress our view on them, for each category of person concerned by the European Researcher's Night. Our goals are : For the general public: o Attract a public that is not familiar with science by means of our offer of an exciting event and ensure that the public spends a long time at the event (more than two and a half hours) to truly interact with the researchers; o Help the public understand how research works (and not settle for merely being informed of the results) by : - sharing “science in the making”: what are the questions, the procedures, the alliances, the successes and the difficulties? (Our themes “stories” and “investigations” were chosen to underline this.) - involving visitors in the scientific process (by means of participatory experiments and more generally our invitation to join in the showcased investigations cf. § 1.2); o Involve members of the public and awaken the desire to develop and maintain a connection with research before and after the event. o Make the support provided by the European Union visible (and humanize it) by organizing festive meals and by creating events with foreign researchers who are taking part in European projects; o Impact a large swathe of the French territory, including one overseas territory, Reunion Island; o Make it clear that the community of researchers is an international “hive” teeming with challenges For the general public and researchers: o Bring researchers and members of the public together around shared activities and show that researchers are not necessarily from another planet and that visitors have more to contribute than they may think!; o Demonstrate that the issues facing researchers are of interest to the general public, and vice versa. For researchers: o Encourage researchers to make their science understandable for the general public by helping a large number of them to successfully do so for the first time (and by training them); o Show that popularizing one’s work entails multiple advantages: public participation (data!), new partnerships, the satisfaction of talking about one’s experience and of being able to share it (which is important psychologically), a new way of looking at one’s own work and, last but not least, encouragement for research ! o Gain understanding of the way the public at large perceives researchers’ work. For the media: o Show the mass media that it is possible for them to talk about European research by easing access to researchers and their backgrounds; o Allow non-scientific media (e.g. the local press) to discover research topics and many fascinating researchers who are “just around the corner” but sometimes out of sight; o Provide direct access to experts and, more generally, reinforce the idea that the media are not afraid to solicit the expertise of researchers. For the community of mediators, French governmental and scientific institutions: o Show the community of mediators that it is possible and rewarding to work with researchers; o Invite such institutions to join in upholding the Researchers’ Night event and in helping spread know-how in the researchers-general public encounters we foster; o Make Researchers’ Night one of the major events of culture in France; o Continue to analyze and share our experimentation in PCST (Public Communication of Science & Tech.) gatherings and Citizen Science seminars.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union