EXPLORATHON 2024-2025: European Researchers' Night Scotland

For one night each September, researchers across Scotland will leave their labs and lecture halls to set up hands-on science stalls, school visits, and community events in city centres and remote Highland islands alike. This is EXPLORATHON, the Scottish edition of European Researchers' Night, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. The problem it addresses is simple but stubborn: many people never meet a researcher, never see how science connects to their own lives, and never consider research as a career. The gap is especially wide in geographically isolated communities, which the new consortium explicitly targets by bringing in partners that reach Scotland's Highland and island populations. If the project succeeds, it will make research feel tangible and relevant to thousands of people who currently have little exposure to it. The events follow Responsible Research and Innovation principles, meaning they are designed to be inclusive and to reflect the diversity of researchers working in Scotland today. Over time, this could shift public attitudes toward science, encourage more young people from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue research careers, and build lasting connections between universities and communities that rarely interact with them. The project does not produce new scientific knowledge itself, but it makes the knowledge that already exists more accessible and more trusted.