Bright-Night researchers’ impact in everyday life
The BRIGHT-NIGHT project aims to improve the visibility and image of researchers among the common people in the Tuscany Region, simultaneously with all the initiatives of the European Researchers' Night (ERN). The name BRIGHT, coined in 2013 and used in the subsequent ERN editions, was kept for the 2020 project because it is now established and recognizable throughout the entire academic community, the media and the population of Tuscany at large. Nonetheless, after 6 years it was deemed advisable to refresh the brand for the new edition adding “NIGHT” for playing on the concept that it will be a night in which the future will seem brighter thanks to the outcome of research and the passion of researchers. The project is scheduled for the year 2020 and will last from Friday to Saturday on the date scheduled for ERN. In these two days there will be hundreds of fun and exciting activities that will involve the main Tuscan cities, that will follow on from a set of preparatory events. The 20th anniversary of the European Charter of Rights and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations constitute the framework within which the topics will be developed and declined in the directions of social and environmental sustainability. BRIGHT-NIGHT will involve the population, and in particular young students from primary and secondary schools, through the project of some scientific citizens and through pre-events spread throughout the period. This long-term involvement aims to create a strong link between researchers (who will also participate in a course on scientific communication), young students and the general population in order to make researchers more ""familiar"" and better understand to people how researchers work and live and why to trust them. The locations of the activities are: university premises, museums, botanical gardens, institutional buildings and especially streets and squares in the city centres.