Around 250 researchers from the URV and local research centres have put forward fifty activities over two days aimed at bringing science closer to the public. Tomorrow at 12 p.m., there will be a workshop on microplastics in the Port of Tarragona

A science weekend in the city of Tarragona. The seventh edition of the European Research Night has once again sparked curiosity and interest among families, who attended their annual event in the Plaça Corsini in Tarragona. Around 5,000 people visited the workshop fair on Friday and Saturday, organized by more than 250 researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and the local research institutes ICAC, ICIQ, IISPV, and IPHES.

The workshop fair has been the central event of the European Research Night, a scientific event that takes place simultaneously in over 300 European cities and continues tomorrow in the Port of Tarragona with a workshop on microplastics at 12 p.m. and in the afternoon of Friday, 4 October, in Tortosa with a new workshop fair at the city’s Town Hall Square.

There has been a constant flow of people through the Plaça Corsini. Children, parents, and families have filled the venue over the two days to participate in educational workshops, which researchers have been preparing for weeks to explain their research in an understandable way. These efforts have led to the positive response from the public, many of whom returned on the second day of the fair to complete their visit and learn about all of the proposals.

Upon entering the square, children received a science passport that allowed them to complete some of the nearly 50 workshops organized this year. The proposals were diverse, offering a taste of all scientific disciplines in a very experimental, playful, and understandable way. Most importantly, they had the opportunity to do so alongside the researchers who work on these topics every day.

In order to reach all kinds of audiences, the European Research Night also featured other activities, such as the microtalk sessions held in Reus on Thursday, and over thirty talks and workshops conducted by researchers in secondary schools throughout the region during the week.

This initiative, coordinated and organized by the Science Communication and Outreach Unit of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in the Tarragona region, involved nearly 300 researchers from the URV and local CERCA research centres: the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC), the Catalan Institute of Chemical Research (ICIQ), the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV), and the Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES). The project received funding from the European Union.

Tarragona City Council, through its Europe Direct Tarragona office, is the main sponsor of the workshop fair in Plaça Corsini, along with the Tarragona Provincial Council and the Port of Tarragona. Also collaborating were the Central Market of Tarragona and the Borges company.

Workshop on microplastics in the Port of Tarragona

The scientific activities continue this Sunday. At 12 p.m. at the Port of Tarragona Museum, URV researcher Joaquim Rovira, from the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, will conduct the workshop “Plastificats!” to talk about microplastics, how to identify them, and understand the consequences of their presence in the environment.

Scientific workshop fair in Tortosa

The final event of the European Research Night in the region will take place in Tortosa, where next Friday, 4 October, a fair featuring a dozen scientific workshops will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Town Hall Square. This activity will conclude the project for this year, with plans for another edition in 2025.