A Catalan consortium formed by the University of Girona, as the coordinating entity, the University of Barcelona, University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia, University of Lleida, Rovira i Virgili University, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and the Catalan Association for Scientific Communication (ACCC) got funding for the European Researchers'' Night project, framed within the European Commission program Horizon 2020, in order to organize and coordinate this event in Catalonia.
The European Researchers'' Night is a public event dedicated to popular science carried out in more than 300 cities in thirty European countries at the same time. The aim is to bring research closer to people from all ages and share research and innovation in a fun way.
Every year, this event takes place on the last Friday of September, although its popularity makes it last during previous days and the following weekend. In this edition, however, due to the exceptional situation we are in, and in order to have the necessary time to prepare everything, this activity will take place on November 27. In any case, the form of the activities will be subject on the directions announced by the authorities.
The Catalan proposal, named EUNightCAT20, obtained a great score (14 out of 15). The motto of the activity is "Research to change", and aims to show the importance of research in the Catalan institutions to change our daily life. "This is the first time the European Researchers'' Night in Catalonia is organized with funding from the European Commission, an important support that allows us to highlight the importance of Catalan research and innovation", says Sílvia Simon, researcher at the UdG and coordinator of the project.
Last year, more than 200 activities were organized in Catalonia on the occasion of the European Researchers'' Night, which included talks, workshops and experiments, going through spectacles and games. Since 2018, the Catalan Association for Scientific Communication has coordinated, in collaboration with ISGlobal, the Barcelona node for the event. The activities are distributed around several areas, such as the Sagrada Família Library, CaixaForum, CosmoCaixa, the local office of CSIC in Catalonia, civic centers Urgell and Vil·la Urània, the Historical Building of the UB, FabCafe, the French Lyceum, the Barcelona Science Park and the Pompeu Fabra University. The University of Barcelona organized the node in Girona, the University of Lleida in Lleida, and Rovira i Virgili University the activities in Tarragona and Reus.
The new edition will be coordinated by the UdG researcher Sílvia Simon, who was in charge of this initiative since 2008. Simon is a researcher at the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis of the UdG and director of the Chair of Scientific Culture and Digital Communication in its foundation. She is now the rector's deputy at the UdG for promotion and dissemination. In 2018, she received the Jaume Vicens Vives Award by the Catalan Government to university teaching quality.
In this year's edition of the European Researchers'' Night, in order to continue with an excellent impact and efficient in the implementation of the activity, the ACCC will coordinate the communication of the five nodes of Catalonia (Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, Girona and Vic), together with the entities that joined this European project: UdG, coordinator entity of the project and Girona; the UB and ISGlobal, coordinators of the activities in Barcelona, UdL, coordinator of the activities in Lleida; URV, coordinator of the activities in Tarragona, and UVic-UCC, coordinator of central Catalonia.
The project counts on the support from UOC, UPF, Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation, AGAUR and ACUP, among other entities.
