More than 400 activities in Granada for the European Researchers Night

It will take place on Friday the 30th and more than 15,000 people are expected to participate throughout the day.

Almost 400 activities related to knowledge, around 20 stands that will be installed on the Paseo del Salón and more than 500 scientists complete a new edition of the European Researchers' Night that will be held in Granada next Friday, September 30. The mayor, Francisco Cuenca, who presented the program at City Hall this morning, highlighted “the unity of a society that looks at science with respect and, above all, with hope.”

After announcing that more than 15,000 people are expected to participate in the activities scheduled for the 30th, Cuenca stressed that "we are very clear that the transformation and improvement of the world we live in is going to happen through science." In this context he has reiterated “Granada's gratitude and pride towards the men and women who develop science in the hope that our city has ahead of it a perspective of growth in equity and a development based precisely on the most important value that a society, which is that of curiosity.”

“We are on the verge of, through science, becoming the European reference for research in obtaining clean energy through nuclear fusion, and I am talking about IFMIF-DONES,” he noted. “And we are also, thanks to the knowledge and science generated by our University, in the race to host the first public artificial intelligence regulatory body in all of Europe,” he recalled.

Regarding the programming, the morning of September 30 will have the little ones as protagonists: some 400 schoolchildren from different educational centers in Granada will visit the stands to carry out workshops and participate in different activities. One of the objectives of the European Researchers' Night is, precisely, to awaken scientific vocations in children and young people. In the afternoon, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., activities open to the public will be held, which will conclude with a free-access show called 'Flamenco Night', by Irene Rueda and her flamenco group. , starting at 10:00 p.m. on the stage installed on the Paseo del Salón.

These street activities will be complemented with a program of guided tours of the capital, for which it will be necessary to reserve in advance, and which will take participants to see, for example, the fossils of the city of Granada, the scientific collections of the Department of Zoology of the Faculty of Sciences or to take a geodidactic route through the monuments of the capital.

As a novelty, in this edition actions have also been designed with educational centers, with the name 'Night in the classrooms', which will extend throughout the school year and which, in the case of Granada, will be around 20 activities approximately. . A good part of the programmed activities will focus on the five Horizon Europe Missions set by the European Commission: cancer, adaptation to climate change including social transformation, water and oceans, smart and climate-neutral cities, as well as soil health and food.

Together with the mayor of the capital, the delegate of University, Research and Innovation of the Government of Andalusia in Granada, María José Martín, participated in the presentation of the 11th edition of the European Researchers' Night; the vice-rector of University Extension of the University of Granada, Víctor Jesús Medina; the director of the López Neyra Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine (IPBLN), Fuencisla Matesanz; the scientific director of the Biobank of the Public Health System of Andalusia, José Manuel Puerta, and the director of the Discover Foundation, Teresa Cruz.

In Granada, the organization of the European Researchers' Night is carried out by the University of Granada, the four CSIC centers that participate in this project (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, School of Arab Studies, Institute of Parasitology and Biology López- Neyra and Estación Experimental del Zaidín) and the Progreso y Salud Public Foundation (through Biobanco and Genyo), with the support of the Granada City Council. The Andalusian School of Public Health, the Health Technology Park, the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.Granada), the Caja Granada Foundation, the European Documentation Center of the UGR, the Granada Provincial Council also participate in the Night. , Covirán and FIDESOL.

The European Researchers' Night is a scientific dissemination project promoted by the European Commission within the Marie Sk³odowska-Curie actions of the Horizon Europe program, coordinated in Andalusia by the Discover Foundation with funding from the Department of University, Research and Innovation.

The consortium is made up of the Universities of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga, Pablo de Olavide and Seville, eight centers of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), the IMGEMA-Royal Botanical Garden of Córdoba and the Public Foundation Progress and Health through Genyo and the Health System Biobank. At the same time, Radio Television of Andalusia, the Andalusian Knowledge Agency and the Andalusian Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries, Food and Ecological Production Research and Training (IFAPA) are strategic partners of the project and collaborate closely in its development.