Friday 27th september

Come to Investigate

image cartenuit_deschercheursa.png (37.7kB)

For the 2019 edition, the European Researchers Night chose the theme 1.001 Stories
We chose to work on the historical core of popularization: the art of storytelling, from one human being to another 1 ! As we can now mobilize more than 1000 researchers, We play on this polysemy as well as on the reference made by our slogan to the book Arabian Nights (One Thousand and One Nights), the legendary collection of multiple tales.
In this way, the theme does not invite visitors to listen in passive silence to stories, but rather to join in a game of exchange with researchers.This game enables all participants to critically discuss communication, to come to a better understanding together of what research activity entails.
This theme is also an echo of the European Year of Cultural Heritage because It must first be said that in French, the word â??histoireâ? has several meanings: â??historyâ?, â??storyâ?, even â??taleâ?

The goals of the European Researchers Night are

Attract a public that is not familiar with science by means of our offer of an exciting event
Ensure that the public spends a long time at the event (more than two and a half hours) to truly interact with the researchers
sharing â??science in the makingâ?: what are the questions, the procedures, the alliances, the successes and the difficulties ?
Involve members of the public and awaken the desire to develop and maintain a connection with research before and after the event

Each city bring his personal touch

Our evening events are all prepared using the same approach, will all rely and will adopt the same common interactions, like Speed-searching, Tell Me a Tale of Research, The Fake News Laboratory, Meetings in the Dark...So 80% of the programmed interactions will be common but 20% is the personal touch of the manager structure almost based on the stage Designs (Scenography).

Common interactions

Stage Designs (Scenography)

Playful, aesthetic and interactive presentations and special atmospheres will be created in order to facilitate the encounter between the public and the researchers. The idea is to provide immersion into the researchers' world and highlight its attractiveness. The scenography will be adapted to our particularly evocative themes.

Speed-searching

This is a variation on speed-dating where members of the general public meet researchers instead of bachelors. Every 8 minutes, the public switches to another researcher. We encourage researchers to come with an illustrative object to help get the discussion going. This â??interactionâ? will be adapted to the two themes: in 2018, researchers can begin their presentation with "once upon a time" and recount their research work in a manner inspired by the writing of tales. In 2019, meetings can start in the manner of a police investigation.

Meetings in the Dark

This creative interaction was tested for the first time during the 2014 French ERN. The public enters a totally black room. A researcher talks about his/her work, without being seen, for 20 minutes. The intimacy created by the darkness is favourable to straightforward exchanges.

Choose Your Own Adventure

In the manner of some books, TV series or games, we will propose a playful narrative concept in which the public is the hero. Visitors will discover and connect with a research story, step by step, acting and living out some twists and developments and facing certain choices they will have to make. These choices will influence the unfolding and the end of the story. The game will be devised by mediators and scientists who have agreed to bring their work into play.

Tell Me a Tale of Research

The universe of storytelling will be conjured up to tell various tales of research in various manners. Ahead of the ERN, we will bring together research workers with storytellers and actors. During these encounters, we will either write research stories or select tales that are â??in harmonyâ? with the research methods or research stories that will be put forward in each ERN. These tales may be shared via various modalities: a â??town crierâ? equipped with a loudhailer to begin with, a â??rambling storytellerâ? strolling around the venue and offering visitors to follow him/her, a wise person ending the evening under the parley tree or by the fireside.