“Fascinating World of Researchers in the Age of Technology – Researchers for the Future”

The ‘European Researchers’ Night’ is a pan-European event involving a wide range of scientific and research organisations, including museums, laboratories and academic institutions, which host a variety of entertaining and fun events planned to run late into the night. The aim is to give the public, and in particular young people, the opportunity to meet researchers within the context of festive and ‘fun’ activities and to highlight the appeal of pursuing a research career.. How will our world look like in ten, twenty or fifty years? What kind of scientific solutions will form our everyday life? What role do researchers play in influencing our future? How would future researchers look like? These questions have already been raised by many of us – this year our proposal is focusing on answering them.

General Objectives of FAWORIT 2012

 

(1) to overcome and change the prevailing stereotypes and contribute to the enhancement of public recognition of researchers and their work and also (2) to highlight the role of researchers in shaping our future. We would like to show that researchers have a leading role in building a competitive, innovative, knowledge-based society – now and also in the upcoming years. The large audience will get a snapshot on 28 September 2012 about different future scenarios and scientific fields that affect mostly our lives at the moment and in the future. The series of events will mainly focus on the Researcher – on his professional and on his “private” life. The public will be “edutained” during the Night: scientific talks, presentations will be mixed with funny, entertaining elements. A large number of (young, old, male, female) researchers will be involved to be present at the event and, through interactive happenings, will be in direct contact with the large public. The target audience can thus discover that a research career is interesting, enjoyable and profitable, but could also have a picture about the future of the researchers and their research fields. Another, very significant aim of the project is to motivate the youth – the future generation – to choose a scientific profession and thereby to facilitate the increase in the number of researchers in the European Research Area. Everybody between 7 and 77 will be able to find an attractive, suitable program for him/herself. Our goal is to attract around 12 000 people to the Researchers’ Night itself, but a multiple of that number (500.000) will see, hear or read about this trendy and unique event.

The main themes of the venues are the following:

• Campus of BZN: New Materialists – materials science, laser technology; computing systems;
• Klebelsberg Community Centre: The Environment-friendly Researcher – environment, climate change, chemistry, ecosystems;
• Museum of Literature Petőfi: Futurologists – social sciences, astrology, futurology, psychology, humanities;
• Planetarium: (Re)search for the Astronaut  – Mars and space research, aeronautics;
• Ericsson Building: Telecommunicators  – ICT, physics, mathematics, engineering;
• Schönherz Collegium: Matrix – robotics, ICT-related technologies;
• Miskolctapolca: Substantialists: passion for invisible details – nanoscience, material and medical sciences;
• Secondary school premises: Future Generation of Researchers – all disciplines (in 3 schools, covered by former students)
• List of Participants

Participant No	Participant short name	Participant organisation name	Country
1(coord.)	BZN	Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd.	Hungary
2	RCISD	Regional Centre for Information and Scientific Development	Hungary
3	Ericsson	Ericsson Hungary Communication Systems Ltd	Hungary
4	HETFA	Hétfa Research Institute	Hungary
5	DOSZ	National Association of PhD students	Hungary