L’Aquila – The date with European Researchers Night returns again this year to L’Aquila, Friday 30 September 2022, with SHARPER (SHARing’s passion for researchers to improve roadmaps), one of the Italian projects approved by the European Commission for two – 2022-2023 period and upgraded under the actions of Marie Curie .
The event brings together the scientific world and the city community in the city’s historic center to share a passion for research that motivates researchers through fun, games and testimonials. As in every edition, the activities will include children, younger generations, adults, families and above all the school world. This year, special attention will be devoted to students, to give them the opportunity, through specific activities, to get to know the researchers and the applications of their research in everyday life more closely.
SHARPER L’Aquila is organized by the National Laboratories of Gran Sasso in cooperation with the Municipality of L’Aquila and the Gran Sasso Science Institute, surrounded by a network of partners united over the years and other important scientific, cultural and institutional realities of the region. Such as the Abruzzo region, the Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the biopharmaceutical company Dompé, MAXXI L’Aquila, Leonardo SpA, the Association for the Teaching of Physics and the Gran Sasso Science Association. As is the case every year, the event will see the primary participation of bodies and institutions, including the State Police, the Carabinieri, the Financial Police, the Fire Brigade and the Academy of Fine Arts.
“Removing the goals achieved by scientific research from the classroom and academic laboratories has become an essential requirement to get civil society to engage in new horizons of knowledge – says Ezio Previtali, Director of Gran Sasso National Laboratories – with the SHARPER event every year we put researchers in direct contact with citizens through Sharing experiences and research conducted in laboratories. Previous experiments have always impressed me with the enthusiasm of researchers and the great participation of L’Aquila, and I am sure that this year SHARPER will once again be able to engage everyone in what remains a great science festival.”
This event represents an opportunity for discussion and meeting between the general public and scholars, who are increasingly major players in the challenges our society faces today, with a focus on the future.
“SHARPER has now been confirmed as a signature event for the City of L’Aquila, where training, knowledge and knowledge enhancement are the cornerstones on which the path of continued rebirth has been followed – comments Pierluigi Biondi, Mayor of L’Aquila – a fantastic appointment backed by the conviction of the management and we renew our congratulations to the promoters who each year formulate a project proposal true capable of obtaining consensus at the international level.”
Curiosity is the common ground between citizens and researchers. It represents the lifeblood of scientific research and the knowledge that animates each of us, so it is important to teach it to children, from an early age, to cultivate it as adults, and never lose it.
“The beautiful phrase attributed to Montaigne is that teaching does not fill a vase but kindles a fire – says Eugenio Cocchia, President of the Gran Sasso Institute of Sciences – the same can be said of scientific publishing and SHARPER activity: not only informing and stimulating interests, especially among young people, which can directs their future choices. On the new night of European researchers, L’Aquila wants to assert itself as the capital of culture and science.”
The event will be held simultaneously in 13 other cities besides L’Aquila: Ancona, Camerino, Cagliari, Catania, Genoa, Macerata, Nuoro, Palermo, Pavia, Perugia, Sassari, Terni and Trieste, supported by a network of partners coordinated by the social enterprise Psiquadro that includes the National Institute of Nuclear Physics – INFN, and the Immaginario Scientifico Science Center , the Observa Science in Society and six universities: Politecnica della Marche, University of Cagliari, University of Catania, University of Palermo, University of Perugia. More than 200 institutions, cultural partners and participating research bodies including CNR, INAF and INGV.