Impact assesment

Impact assessment reports of the Researchers’ Night events from 2010 to 2013 are rare up-to-date reports about a public perception of the researchers and their work in Serbia. Each year, for four years in a row, we asked more than 1000 visitors about their impressions and what they gained from the event. This is what was discovered:  The most often perception of researchers is one-dimensional and stereotypical: researchers tend to be seen as geekish, dull and distant, which diminishes their chance to become role models to the young.  People do not adequately recognize the direct benefits of the research for the society.  Quite often, it is not understood why some people choose to become researchers.  Only a small percentage of the population has friends among researchers and/or knows them personally.  Young people do not show enough interest in pursuing career in science.  Many think that Serbia does not possess a research capacity of its own;  Research carried out here through the EU support is not sufficiently recognized;  People in Serbia would love to have more science venues and places demonstrating science and its achievements, talking about science (attractive science museums) The underlying conclusion of these reports is that the RN improved general awareness and knowledge about WHAT the researchers do, but left some room for:  Improving the image and recognition of the researchers in society (WHO are the researchers?)  Clarifying and demystifying their motivation and inspiration to become researchers (WHY) and  Explaining WHY research matters to us all, without exceptions. Bearing in mind that these questions are in the very focus of activities planned in the awareness campaign and during the Night in 2014 and 2015, special attention through the impact assessment will be given to these questions, as well. The impact assessment report will be based on findings of the field surveys, questionnaires, interviews and targeted group discussions with stakeholders. The main aim of these surveys is to collect data on how the public sees the researchers and their profession, and to assess the impact and success of the project. For proper drafting of the questionnaires we already initialized collaboration with Professor Slobodanka Markov and Docent Petar Vrgovic, experienced practitioners and experts from the field of social sciences and psychology. We will combine their knowledge with our own accumulated experience from the previous years to develop the most suited tools. We will make a short but comprehensive questionnaire adaptable to different communication channels FRIEND2U (face to face, phone, Internet) and to different segments of the audience addressed (schools, kids, young people, adults, teachers and families). We will use a combination of various assessment methods in order to collect data representing different stakeholders and geographic areas. A kind of interesting lottery for all participants in surveys will be introduced in order to motivate as many people as possible to participate in impact assessment exercise. Surveys will be conducted in three rounds each year, prior to the event, during the Night, and after the event. In each round, sample body representatives will be selected independently and randomly, including at least 750 (during the Night 2000) people from different age and target (mainly young population, researchers, parents and policy makers) groups from all five cities (field survey), as well as the whole Vojvodina region (phone interview). The study will be carried out to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the project results as per project objectives as well as project organization, and researchers’ satisfaction. Finally, they will be used to develop new individual and joint strategies for projects within the network, based on the inquiry results. The same or very similar questionnaires will be used in successive years in order to more easily