On the 30th of September, all UNITA universities will celebrate U*Night, the European Researchers Night with activities all long the day. UNITA Junior Academy and a Marathon with the researchers are examples of connected events that will occur simultaneously on the six cities.
U*Night will involve researchers from 5 Countries and will entail the organization of 5 regional events with a programme of activities designed to enhance the European dimension of the event while giving value to local strength and experiences. The project has been designed to expand the outreach action of the NIGHT also bringing the event to new cities and to rural, semi-rural and mountain areas that are usually less involved in this kind of event.
This will be possible thanks to the efforts of the members of UNITA, the European University Alliance strongly committed to the valorisation of rural and mountain areas, and to the coordination of UNITO, which has many years of experience in the event.
The activities will be conceived to increase the public recognition of R&D in terms of impact on citizens and communities’ daily lives: to this aim, the project will adopt the approach of Horizon Europe Missions, framing the communication in a challenge-based narrative, to translate critical issues into concrete objectives and make the researchers’ work tangible and linked to real life. U*Night will also enhance the direct participation of people to the research process, by launching a transnational citizen science project to highlight the contribution that citizens can bring to science and the benefit they can get in terms of personal development.
U*Night will also promote the role of citizens as key stakeholders in the debate on societal challenges and will activate a constructive interaction with policy makers and scientists. To this aim U*Night will create concrete opportunities for opening this dialogue, by launching co-creation processes that lead to more inclusive decision policy-making. U*Night will also develop innovative training resources to support researchers in becoming better listeners to citizens’ needs and concerns, and to build a stronger relationship with society.
In addition, U*Night intends to become an open laboratory for communication and outreach practices, where the partners can pioneer innovative actions but also nurture a stronger culture of public engagement within the European academia through the direct connection of UNITA with all the other European university Alliances.
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