Outreach activities

To promote the activities of CALIPSO to a general public, the network initiated and contributed to a wide range of outreach activities, which covered network-wide as well as specific activities of individual researchers. As a first step, we established a multi-lingual starting page which describes CALIPSO activities and the overall goal on our web page.

Edoardo Cutolo wrote an article presenting the general coverage of the CALIPSO project to a broad general readership. The article appeared in the Argentinian general interest newspaper on November 23 2014. It introduces the issue of plant stress responses and mentions the potential future applications deriving from such research efforts.

Christian Volk went to the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) Colloquium 2014 in Hakone, Japan. This meeting was hosted by the National Institute of Natural Sciences of Japan to discuss the future of science. Christian presented CALIPSO as an example to show how young scientists are trained and international cooperations are promoted in the EU through Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

Verena Schön guided visitors in the biological laboratory at ecoduna at the open house day on the 22nd of August 2014. In February 2015, the ZDF made a documentary about algae and during the filming she explained the cultivation of the algae in the photobioreactors and answered to all biological questions of the reporters. Moreover, during several visits of other small visitor groups she helped to explain the principle of the prebreed and the different algal strains used at ecoduna.

Bikram Pandey, Manuela Leonardelli, Valentin Roustan, and Michele Grieco prepared experiments and actively participated at the Fascination of Plants Day held at the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna on the 17^th of May 2015. This event was jointly organized by the University of Vienna and the GMI and widely accepted by the public. "Making the invisible visible," was the motto of this family event with exciting hands-on experimental workshops, guided tours, and an international root-race at the flourishing Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna, located in the 3rd district.

More than 500 people were excited and fascinated by the deep scientific insights.

Particularly the hands-on experiments that could be carried out by children at the CALIPSO stand were highly frequented.

Alexis Riché, Julia Walter, and Gioia Lenzoni did also participate at the Fascination of Plants Day in Geneva, Turku, and Durham, respectively.

Ingo Ebersberger wrote a general article to the topic: “Is evolution measurable?“ for the journal „Forschung Frankfurt”, which is edited by the Goethe University. It covers the concepts of the CALIPSO project in Frankfurt and explains these to a broader readership. It will appear in Volume 1-2015.

Bikram Pandey wrote a general article describing his project under the topic “Mein Projekt” for the journal “Forschen & Entdecken” published by city of Vienna. It covers the concept of his project explaining signal transduction and physiological adaptation in plants upon stress to a broader readership. It appeared in the Volume 1-2016.

Manuela Leonardelli, Valentin Roustan, Michele Grieco, Verena Schön, Bikram Panday, and Edoardo Cutolo participated at the European Researcher's Night 2015 on September 25 in Vienna and Michael Thaler at similar event in Paris.

About 2500 visitors attended the ERN in Vienna between 5 pm and midnight.

Subsequent to the “Science Communication” workshop, Eduardo Cutolo, Michele Grieco, Arpit Jain, Gioia Lenzoni, Manuela Leonardelli, Izabela Matyszczak, Bikram Pandey, Alexis Riché, Valentin Roustan, Verena Schön, Christian Volk, and Julia Walter explained and supervised a set of experiments to the pupils of the bilingual Viennese Primary school Kepplerplatz on November 17, 2015.

Valentin Roustan, organized a visit of the Energy park (including Ecoduna) of Bruck am der Leitha in cooperation with the Vienna French embassy, Business France and the French Lycée of Vienna in April 2016 (60-70 persons). The aim of the visit was to show synergic interaction between local policy, industrial partner and citizens to build innovative center scientifically supported by researcher granted by the EU.

Additionally in May 2016 he organized in cooperation with Leica Microsystem (Samples preparation for microscopy), located in Vienna, a visit for university members (10-15 persons) to connect the Research and Development department of Leica  Microsystem with  researchers in order  to promote dialogue  around technological  innovation to tackle  scientific challenges.