Hailing a taxi to bolster Europe’s research

By Will Bland

Date: 29/09/05

A walking robot and a giant bubble captured the imagination of young Europeans last Friday (25 September).

These novelties were part of a series of experiments, lectures and activities that the European Commission staged across the continent in order to raise the profile of scientific research.

The continent needs to attract 700,000 new researchers in order to meet its ambitious research targets. This means an increase of almost 50% in the number of people working in laboratories and universities.

For Raffaele Liberali, one of the co-ordinators of Researchers' Night, it means "bringing science closer to society; bringing research to taxi-drivers".

Liberali acknowledges that if European society is to increase spending on research by a third then universities and research organisations will need to do more than just improve public relations. If any of the young people who were fascinated by the robot decide that they wish to help develop future automatons, they will find many reasons to be discouraged.

Researchers in Europe find it very hard to move between universities. Liberali wants university graduates to have more options than simply progressing up the same institution as doctoral student, post-doctoral student, fellow and then professor. This means reforming the strong bureaucratic structures in European universities. Liberali believes in encouraging researchers to spend time in different laboratories. He is even in favour of them moving to American institutes, so long as they eventually return to the EU.

As it stands, young researchers in Europe must respect a long-established system. It is very hard for them to publish their findings until they have a doctorate. It is also difficult for researchers to find jobs in universities once they have worked in private enterprise.

The image of researchers must also change, Liberali says. Doctoral researchers should not be seen as students when their contemporaries are professionals.

Almost two-thirds of Europeans think that scientists "have power that makes them dangerous" according to a Eurobarometer poll conducted earlier this year.

The same proportion of people believed that scientists "put too little effort into making their research understood".

In November the Commission is putting on a conference to encourage scientists to word their research in language that people find interesting rather than intimidating.

The Commission wants people to see scientists as normal people, with pastimes outside laboratories.

This was encapsulated by their choice of logo for Researchers' Night - a disco-dancing scientist pointing at the stars.

The University of Southern Bohemia in the Czech Republic had no walking robots but found its own response to Researchers' Night.

The faculty staged a rock concert with a difference - the stars were chemists, geologists and astrophysicists who, for the evening, had swapped microscopes for microphones.

Article reports on the Researchers' Night, organised by the European Commission on 26 September 2005. The event included a series of experiments, lectures and activities staged across the continent in order to raise the profile of scientific research.

European Commission: DG Research: Resarchers in Europe 2005: Events: Researchers Night 2005 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/research/researchersineurope/events/event_2214_en.htm

---