European Researchers’ Night has become one of the most well-known and important public engagement events since it was first introduced in 2005. Ireland’s leading university, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), has coordinated European Researchers’ Night events every year since 2013. Building on the success of the last two years in particular, Science Gallery Dublin and the School of Education at Trinity College, in partnership with the British Council in Ireland (BC), will host PROBE as part of European Researchers’ Night in 2018 and 2019. PROBE will connect researchers with members of the general public through a wide range of interactive and hands-on activities, with a focus on dialogue and participatory learning. PROBE will embrace the theme of cultural heritage to coincide with the European Year of Cultural Heritage, and will emphasise citizen science as an approach to co-creating research. PROBE will aim to challenge general perceptions of research, as well as stereotypes of researchers. The benefit of research to everyday life, the opportunities provided by research careers, and the role of the European Union will all be highlighted by PROBE events. Public engagement and communication training workshops will be offered to all MSCA-funded researchers, and research career showcase pre-events will provide direct contact between researchers and school students. The PROBE project team have extensive experience managing and delivering high-quality public engagement events, and in publishing their evaluations in peer-reviewed education and communication journals. PROBE is a project that will build on the success of previous iterations of European Researchers’ Night hosted by Trinity College Dublin and will be grounded in best practice.

European Researchers’ Night events have been held at Trinity College Dublin every year since 2013. Each year has seen a growth in the number of Trinity researchers taking part, and in the levels of engagement with the general public. Previous iterations of European Researchers’ Night at Trinity have been coordinated by an individual school, usually in collaboration with Science Gallery Dublin. In a radical departure, the Office of the Dean of Research in partnership with the British Council Ireland, will host START as part of European Researchers’ Night 2020. Based on the idea Start Talking About Research Today, Trinity will create an innovative city-wide event that will activate various sites around Dublin to highlight the fact that research takes place all over our city and takes many forms. START will provide an opportunity for the general public and researchers to engage with each other in new ways. Through a combination of activities, demonstrations, tours, talks and more, START will promote the idea that research is a living, fundamental part of our society that impacts on and involves everyone. START will work to achieve a number of specific goals: 1. Create new dialogues between researchers and the general public that will lead to a deeper, more profound and sustained engagement with each other; 2. Raise awareness of research and research careers as positive forces in our society; 3. Highlight the role of the European Union in supporting research and discovery. Public engagement and communications workshops will be offered to all MSCA-funded researchers, as well as other participants in the events on the Night. A series of activities and showcases will be conducted to raise awareness in the months preceding European Researchers’ Night. Trinity has a wealth of talent and experience in public engagement activities including previous ERN events, and the project team will draw on this expertise to ensure that START is grounded in best practice.

Cork Discovers aims to create a fun, interactive and thought-provoking world of research for European Researchers’ Night (ERN) 2020. The theme of the 2020 event is change. An event that promises to be fun for all the family, people will be invited to ‘discover their changing world’ (figure 2) and explore the positive changes research has made and continues to make to our daily life. Our proposed event is an evolution of the Cork Discovers project which ran its first ERN in 2018 and whose public awareness campaign has reached almost 200,000 people. Our ambitious aim is to build on our existing brand to present a significantly bigger and better ERN this year. It will: • Expand to a two-day event with an exciting programme planned for Saturday for the first time • Further geographic reach by spreading beyond Cork City and county to 5 new sites throughout Ireland • Feature an 1) innovative schools’ programme including pre-events and workshops and a 2) novel citizen science project that is ‘co-designed’ with local schools • Embark upon a new strategy of ‘research by stealth’ to significantly increase and diversify its audience Our largest ERN programme to date will showcase the wonderful research being undertaken in Cork and further afield and will demonstrate the varying ways in which research effects change. A dedicated strand of the programme will focus on sustainability research to reflect the strength of our partner organisations in this area and to respond to public interest in the topic. We will go beyond simply showcasing research. We will lead by example by ‘going green’ in 2020 developing an event that is sustainable from conception to fruition and taking steps to limit the environmental impact as much as possible.