Researchers' Night 2021 Inspired Visitors with Virtual Experiments, Discussions and Music

European Researchers' Night took place online on 30 April. More than 4,000 people watched the approximately 200 different activities that 15 Latvian institutions of higher education and research institutes had organised online. The University of Latvia organised European Researchers' Night in Latvia this year and a number of representatives from Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) participated – criminologists, chemists, physicists, public health experts, nutrition and sports specialists, statisticians, dentists and medical simulation experts.

This was the 15th year in a row that this event was organised in Latvia. 20 parallel live broadcasts gave the public the opportunity to virtually visit the largest Latvian universities and the most important scientific centres in eight Latvian cities. This year's theme was Scientific Achievements for the Future.

The hub of the event was the website zinatniekunakts2021.lv, where visitors could read up on the programme beforehand and select those events that they were interested. The programme was divided into three sections: Mazie pētnieki (Young Scientists), Izzinātāji (Researchers) un Lielā zinātne (Serious Science). These categories drew attention to the changes in the target audience for this year's Researchers’ Night – it was not only children and young people, but also adults, students, science enthusiasts and scientists themselves who created something interesting and engaging for themselves.

The event’s participants created both live activities like lectures, discussions, quizzes, concerts, excursions, demonstrations of experiments, readings, physical activities and pre-prepared films, video presentations and lectures, reviews of research projects, games and so on.

All the activities gave visitors the opportunity to communicate with researchers directly and write in questions. Moreover, the most active visitors had the opportunity to collect points during the event. The three visitors who received the highest score got valuable gifts. The approximately 2,000 comments and likes that were left on the platform confirmed that people had thoroughly enjoyed this year’s Researchers' Night. Visitors expressed their appreciation regarding the content and format of the event.