Sofia Tech Park participated in the initiative with 3-day long program, including presentations, demonstrations and interesting videos.

European Researchers’ Night FRESHER 2020 presented over 200 scientific presentations and demonstrations during the unprecedented 3-day long program for children and adults that admires the science. The mega online event was held on 27th , 28th and 29th November and was streamed in more than 50 social networks’ channels.

The audience learned from what the plants suffer, which herbs found on Bulgarian territory can be turned into medicine or delicious food, how are they genetically transformed and would it be possible to grow plants on Mars. Together we tried out cosmic mission simulator, we flied an airplane, learned more about the new string theory, as well as we got an answer to the question why the viruses are not always our enemies. The scientists talked about their newest projects and research activities.

This is only a small part of the topics included in the Night’s program that were discussed by different researchers of all ages, of various scientific fields, of institutes and universities all over the country. This year, the event was held entirely online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The complicated situation didn’t allow us to be physically together, but the program provided every viewer with the unique opportunity to choose from an abundant set of presentations, demonstrations, live discussions and many more interesting activities. The audience was able to visit laboratories, botanical gardens, research submarine from their couch.

The scientists and viewers were greeted by Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Karina Angelieva, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science, and Todor Chobanov, the Deputy Mayor of Sofia.

“The accessible and interactive nature of European Researcher’s Night make the initiative even more popular with every passing year. I believe that a lot of young people will be inspired by the demonstrations and the contact with researchers to start their own scientific projects and research activities. Now, I address the girls. There is still too few women-researchers, although, it is a fact that in school the girls are as good as the boys in the science fields. The young people – girls and boys, are able to get inspiration from the ambitions for new discoveries and to join the ranks of scientists and engineers. Europe needs more young people to become innovators and researchers that will be able overcome the global challenges.” said the European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel during the opening night of the Nights’ FRESHER.

The Deputy Ministry of Education and Science Karina Angelieva emphasized that Bulgaria has always been a home for scientists with an enormous role in building our society. “We have a lot of young scientists, some of whom have returned from abroad. The teachers’ part is very important – they have to set the pace for the rising generation and hand in hand with the scientists to give the lead for the politicians.” she pointed out. She also expressed the belief that investments in education and science must be increased. “We need to believe in science and scientists.” concluded Karina Angelieva.

“Science is the most important tool for overcoming every crisis, including the present one. Science gives the scientists and researchers the unique satisfaction and allows them to keep going. To be a scientist is worthy and a reason to be respected for.” declared the Deputy mayor of Sofia Todor Chobanov. He emphasized that scientists do not work only for themselves – their achievements are in society’s favor. “One of the biggest accomplishments of the Bulgarian scientists is the participation in CERN which proved that Bulgarian science has an important place in the European environment” concluded Todor Chobanov.

The program continued with presentations, discussions, demonstrations, movies, virtual visits, exhibitions and many other activities. The host of the scientific studio located in Sofia Tech Park was the BNT’s journalist Nadya Obretenova. The Park’s program for the Night’ was presented live in the studio by Vassil Karaivanov, the Chairman of the Management Board at Sofia Tech Park.

In immediate proximity, in Sofia Tech Park’s Club House, was located a second studio, where was live streamed the science & technology park’s program for the European Researchers’ Night. In it participated scientists from the Laboratory complex of the park, as well as partner organizations. The host was Mihail Iliev, part of the team tasked with the development of the park’s research potential. Together we learned why the viruses are not only our enemies, what actually the string theory is, what it’s like to be a drone pilot, what the holoportation is, how people imitate innovations from the nature, why we don’t have to be afraid of the AI and what the future of robots is. The experts from TechnoMagicLand demonstrated interesting experiment and lectures for kids. Together we watched educational movies and videos, provided by our partners.

All presentations and demonstrations are available whenever you want in our social networks:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SofiaTechPark

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBYcgsuaJAfxiJCeUyL6F7g

In the initiative participated reserchers from educational institutions and organization in Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna, Russe, Pleven, Stara Zagora, Blagoevgrad, Sliven, Gabrovo, Veliko Tarnovo, municipality of Dolna Mitropolia, etc. You can find our partners’ programs here: https://fresher-researchersnight.bg/.

The code name of the innovative project, in which simultaneously will participate over 400 cities in Europe and around the world, is FRESHER. It is an English abbreviation and means Find Research Everywhere, SHare and expERience. The initiative promoting science and its achievements is funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie program of the Horizon 2020 program. The Night events focus is the topic of plant health, announced by the UN for 2020 which focuses on the future of the planet in the context of plant protection, ecology, the role of plants in human health and the economy, and many other areas.

The run-up to the event has started with traditionally organized competitions for children and young people with inspiration and imagination. “Fantastic plants (and how to find them)” is a drawing competition for children and young people with hearing disabilities about an unusual plant or tree. “Song sheets” is a competition for visually impaired children and young people. Their task is to make mp3 audio recordings of nature sounds. In the essay competition “Strong tenderness” girls and young women on how they see themselves in science. “Roots of inspiration” is a competition for every student, in which to write an essay on how their science and mathematics teacher inspire them. This year, among the fun and instructive initiatives was also “A day in the life of an academician” – an exciting adventure during which the students can observe how passes a day in the life of a senior scientist in Bulgaria.

You can find the Nights’ program here:

https://fresher-researchersnight.bg/programa/

You can find more information about the European Researchers’ Night here:

https://fresher-researchersnight.bg/

You can watch all streamed presentations, demonstration and discussions in our social networks’ profiles:

https://www.facebook.com/ResearchersBG

https://www.instagram.com/researchersnightsofia/

https://youtube.com/channel/UCuw48uHEBebU3518JDxz4fA

Partners in project FRESHER:

Centre for Research and Analysis – http://cra-bg.org/

Sofia Tech Park – http://sofiatech.bg

Forum Democrit – https://democrit.com/