2022 European Researchers’ Night was held last night, on 30 September, at the University of Dubrovnik, in its building at the address Ćira Carića 4. Teachers and scientists from four University constituents: Department of Applied Ecology, Department of Arts and Restoration, Maritime Department and Laboratory for Intelligent Autonomous Systems (LARIAT) prepared a rich and interesting programme of educational and creative workshops, experiments, lectures and games.

Primary and secondary school children of Dubrovnik participated in the programme of the Researchers’ Night. Among other, they had the opportunity to participate in the creative paper recycling workshop and take the booklet that they had made. They used the bottles collected from the sea floor to make a sculpture that will remain permanently exhibited at the University. ‘How can the red cabbage juice be used in laboratory research? Why are underwater robots important for us? What happens when the sea temperature rises and how does this increase impact sea inhabitants, land and people?’ These were just a few questions that were answered by researchers from the University of Dubrovnik and their junior helpers last night.

The Researchers’ Night is an initiative that has been carried out throughout Europe for years now. This year it returned to Croatia after the break from 2019 due to the pandemic. The topic of this year’s Researchers’ Night was the importance of the sea and the role of science in its preservation and sustainable use. Besides five cities in Croatia (Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Rijeka and Pula), this event was also marked by numerous other European cities. University professors included in the programme of the European Researchers’ Night will implement numerous activities during the whole year in elementary and secondary schools in order to promote science and research in a simple, fun and innovative way.

The organisation of the European Researchers’ Night is the main activity of the Blue-connect project with the full title ‘Reconnect science with the blue society’, which is one of 48 projects selected for funding within the programme Horizon Europe. The main goal is to connect science and communities by bringing research and researchers closer to the public and by strengthening the scientific and research education. The project is implemented in coordination with the University of Split and with other partners, i.e. the University of Rijeka, Step-RI, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, University of Zadar, University of Dubrovnik, Medils, Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation and Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries.

More about this project is available at the following links:

Web page: https://jaistrazujem.hr/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaistrazujem

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ja_istrazujem_blueconnect/?hl=hr

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ja_istrazujem?lang=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSiZlto6rssD5QVikLE92w