European Researchers Night 2018

Fancy being part of Explorathon 2018, AKA European Researchers Night?

This September, do you fancy sharing your research in a pan-European event? Explorathon 2018 takes place on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th September 2018.

Explorathon is Scotland’s event for EU Researchers’ Night. Researchers’ Night takes place on the last Friday in September each year. It is a public celebration of research that takes place in more than 300 cities across Europe.

You don’t need to be funded by the European Commission to take part in Researchers’ Night, and you can be working on any area of research – the arts, humanities and social sciences are welcome.

Universities in Scotland first ran Explorathon in 2014. This year, events will take place in the cities of Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews. The Beltane Public Engagement Network coordinates the events in Edinburgh. The Scottish event as a whole is led by the University of Aberdeen.

Last year, around 3,000 members of the public turned out across the city to see events in venues including Ocean Terminal, WHALE Arts, the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church, the City Chambers, and many more. This year, we hope to see many more people! Training will also be available the last week of July, with gamification training for specific activities in September.

If you would like to be involved, we are looking for both researchers and volunteers for the following venues:

Friday 28 September

The Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

The Botanics will once again be a venue for researchers to share their research through drop-in activities from 12 – 4pm. The audience will predominately be adults, with a smaller audience of 5-10 year olds. The theme for the Botanics in 2018 is ‘Native’, so although anything is welcome, there is also the opportunity to align with this theme.

Various schools across Edinburgh

Activities aimed at school groups can be shared across Edinburgh schools, either coordinated by university Widening Participation teams, or through University or Project specific contacts. Activities will take place on Friday morning, as Edinburgh schools finish at lunchtime.

Café Scientifique

Cafe Scientifique is an open and informal forum for the public discussion of science and engineering! The cafe is committed to encouraging public engagement with science and engineering by hosting monthly Cafes in which expert speakers are discussing timely topics with an audience of non-specialists. As part of Explorathon, Café Scientifique will take place in a central Edinburgh venue.

“New Scots” Science Ceilidh

Science Ceilidh is an award-winning science engagement project exploring research with traditional arts for communities across Scotland. This includes our long-term projects working with the Edinburgh “New Scots’ community (including Syrian refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers) to explore culture, including arts, music, language and science. For Explorathon, we are looking to partner with up to three individual researchers or research groups to run workshops with the New Scots community, possibly from August and certainly September, leading to a celebration “ceilidh” for the Explorathon itself (Friday night) sharing some of the learning through these new collaborations between researchers and New Scots, open to everyone. All disciplines welcome to apply – both science and humanities/social science, many of the activities will involve a mix of young children and adults.

See more: www.scienceceilidh.com/new-scots

Saturday 29 September

WHALE Arts

Building on our Explorathon activity with WHALE Arts in previous years, we will be basing one of our hubs there in 2018. WHALE is situated in Wester Hailes in the South West of Edinburgh and is the cultural anchor organisation in its area. It is a community-led charity and social enterprise, set up by local people in 1992. WHALE’s regular projects connect the community with creative opportunities and offer something for all ages and abilities. We will be working with the WHALE team to create an interactive day around a number of themes: food, sustainability, placemaking and wellbeing. We are looking for researchers who use gamification and other methods of public engagement to engage for an interactive day for all the family. Activities will take place during the day

The Lyell Centre @ Heriot-Watt

This year, the Explorathon coincides with Edinburgh Doors Open Day. To the west of the city, Heriot-Watt and BGS’s new marine and earth science centre will be opening their doors, and we will be looking for marine and earth focused activities and talks. Last years event attracted >700 people from a variety of backgrounds, and we will be building on increasing this diversity through work with local community groups. Activities and talks will take place from 10am – 4pm.

Leith Labs @ Ocean Terminal

Leith Labs is the world’s longest research-in-residency programme in a shopping centre situated in Ocean Terminal in Leith. The project aims to link the curiosity of Leithers with researchers, reaching and eventually empowering communities who many not usually go to science events (our evaluation suggest this is at least 59% of our audiences) with events year round. Activities have included table-top drop-in experiments, “science busking”, informal talks and discussions at the Living Memory Association. If you’re interested running any of these formats working with different audiences, exploring some of the 322-odd questions we’ve received from the Leith community or even partnering with a Leith Labs community scientist who has a question to ask, get in touch! All disciplines welcome (not just science!).

See more: www.scienceceilidh.com/leithlabs

Please register your interest here – note that this doesn’t commit you to anything! Any questions, please contact Explorathon@hw.ac.uk. We aim to be back in touch with all contributors in July 2018.

Key contacts for Explorathon at universities in Edinburgh are: