The Five Senses of this Year’s Researchers’ Night

The date of Researchers’ Night is by no means a secret, as the event falls on last September Fridays throughout Europe. What is a surprise for the visitors is the theme. This year’s theme is Through All Senses. “It’s the Czech specialty. We try to come up with a new theme every year in order for the scientist to think about their scientific discipline from various angles,” says Petra Halíková, spokesperson of the Technical University of Ostrava, adding: “The scientists involved can vary every year, since the theme may not be suitable to everyone, which is perfectly appropriate. They may participate the following year, because it can match their professional profile. As a result, the event is more diverse, and visitors can get to know new scientists and their activities.”

The theme will deal with the traditional five senses (smell, hearing, sight, taste, touch) from the perspective of St Thomas Aquinas or Aristotle, among others. “We can come across the statement that the fundamental division of the five senses is no longer valid, as flora and fauna extend the scale considerably. We also address the sixth sense, but also the sense as an ability to perceive. In short, we believe that the topic opens doors to all scientific disciplines and that the variety of interpretations will be attractive to the audiences,” says Lucie Fremrová, spokesperson of the University of Ostrava.

The new theme goes hand in hand with new visuals. “It was essential for us to follow up on the basic graphic features and visuals from the previous year. We have created a unified visual style to enable us to use similar graphic features also in the coming years. What is our intention is for our audiences to associate the graphic features with the Researchers’ Night approaching,” says Jitřenka Navrátilová, manager of the national co-ordinator. The fundamental range of colours is kept; dark background that evokes night, or green colour, occurring frequently in the nature and often associated with research into natural sciences and the universe. Working with vivid bitmap illustrations, we follow the latest trends in graphic design.

A group of two universities of Ostrava (namely, the University of Ostrava and the VŠB Technical University of Ostrava) has co-ordinated the event for the fifth time. Further, more than 20 universities and more than 40 research institutions, science centres, observatories and other facilities are participating in the event, which is taking place in more than 100 spots around Czechia.

Researchers’ Night was initiated by the European Commission in 2005 and its mission is to show that science is not boring, but on the contrary is a source of interesting and fascinating phenomena. One day a year, hundreds of institutions, among them universities, research and development centres, science centres, and other places, open and hold free guided tours, popular education presentations, workshops, experiments, science shows, music performances, amongst others. The aim of the Researchers’ Night is to dispel myths about scientists as people locked in laboratories and to show the general public that they are “ordinary people” who do work beneficial to each of us, they can present it in an engaging way, and they can also have a good time.

Take a look at the online schedule of the 2021 event dealing with the Time. Schedule for this year’s event will appear on the web in late summer 2022.

Researchers’ Night is organised by universities and science facilities in the following cities. If you want to join, all you need to do is apply. We accept applications till March 31st, 2022.

Researchers’ Night was initiated by the European Commission in 2005 and its mission is to show that science is not boring, but on the contrary is a source of interesting and fascinating phenomena. One day a year, universities, research and development centres, science centres, and other places open with free guided tours, popular education presentations, workshops, experiments, science shows, music, and performances, amongst others, taking place. The aim of Researchers’ Night is to dispel myths about scientists as people locked in laboratories and to show the general public that they are “ordinary people” who do work for each of us, they can present it in an engaging way, and they can also have a good time.