Research Innovation Enterprise

Volunteers wanted for Explorathon 2018 – Sept

Fancy being part of Explorathon 2018, AKA European Researchers Night?  

 

This September, do you fancy sharing your research in a pan-European event? Explorathon 2018 takes place on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th September 2018.

 

Explorathon is Scotland’s event for EU Researchers’ Night. Researchers’ Night takes place on the last Friday in September each year. It is a public celebration of research that takes place in more than 300 cities across Europe.

You don’t need to be funded by the European Commission to take part in Researchers’ Night, and you can be working on any area of research – the arts, humanities and social sciences are welcome.

Universities in Scotland first ran Explorathon in 2014. This year, events will take place in the cities of Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews. The Beltane Public Engagement Network coordinates the events in Edinburgh. The Scottish event as a whole is led by the University of Aberdeen. 

Last year, around 3,000 members of the public turned out across the city to see events in venues including Ocean Terminal, WHALE Arts, the City of Edinburgh Methodist Church, the City Chambers, and many more.  This year, we hope to see many more people!

 

If you would like to be involved, we are looking for both researchers and volunteers for the following venues:

Friday 28 September

  • The Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh – daytime drop-in session for families
  • Various schools across Edinburgh – school-age focused activities
  • Café Scientifique – informal talks for an adult audience
  • New Scots Ceilidh – workshops with the New Scots community, possibly from August and certainly September, leading to a celebration “ceilidh”

Saturday 29 September

  • WHALE Arts – daytime interactive activities around a number of themes – food, sustainability, placemaking and wellbeing
  • The Lyell Centre @ Heriot-Watt – daytime drop in activities and talks, themed around marine and earth science
  • Leith Labs @ Ocean Terminal – table-top drop-in experiments, “science busking”, informal talks and discussions

 

Training will also be available the last week of July, with gamification training for specific activities in September.

Please register your interest here – note that this doesn’t commit you to anything! The deadline for expressions of interest is 5pm on Friday 6 July.

Best wishes,

The Explorathon Edinburgh team – Laura, Sarah, Dawn, Lewis, Sandra & Hannah