Friday 27th november

Come to Investigate

image cartenuit_deschercheursa.png (37.7kB)

What does it mean to be a researcher? From hypotheses to results, a whole series of key elements follow one another, nested like gears. This machinery of knowledge can only work if all these elements are brought together and are functional. So, are you ready to go to the other side of the mirror to discover the mecanisms of a successful research?
For this 16th edition, fourteen cities invite you to come and meet these persons, who work daily in order to advance collective knowledge. Under the light of little nocturnal secrets, they will confide in you to share with you the approach of their profession but also the particularities and the subtleties they may encounter during their work. Various interactive activities will allow you to meet researchers face to face or in the dark, to illustrate the distortion of information in medias, to play to unveil a researcher’s identity or to discover many other aspects of this profession. Come to listen to the hundreds of researchers involved in this event as they share their confidences with you... But shhh, this must remain a little nocturnal secret!

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).

It is an invitation for people all around Europe to share an evening with researchers in hundreds of European cities, including 14 in France thanks to the LINCS project. On this occasion, conditions for convivial dialogue are created, for simple and unique exchanges. We create innovative activities for the public. In the staged environments we set up, the atmosphere is relaxed, allowing for intimate and special moments of sharing, to discover the researchers as you have never seen or heard them before.

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.