How does a researcher tackle a problem? Science Battle is a game like event to show the public in a concrete way how researchers tackle a new research question and to demonstrate the process of research. Game was created year 2016 at the University of Turku, Finland and now it will expand as a battle between European Campuses of City Universities (EC2U) alliance.
Science Battle is a game-like event which shows the public in a concrete way how researchers tackle a new research question and demonstrates the process of conducting research. The game was created in 2016 at the University of Turku, Finland, and now it has expanded as a battle between European Campuses of City Universities (EC2U) alliance.
The first semi-final took place on the European Researchers’ Night 2021 between Universities of Pavia (Italy), Poitiers (France), and Turku (Finland). Pavia took to victory and is now waiting for opponent for the big EC2U Science Battle 2023. The opponent will be the winner of 2022.
Join us to cheer the best team to victory in Researchers’ Night 30th September at 3-6 pm. The competitors are Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania), University of Coimbra (Portugal), Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (Germany) and University of Salamanca (Spain).
Each of the universities has put together a team of researchers from different disciplines and at different stages of their research careers. One of the criteria for the members of the teams was also that they are not afraid to throw themselves into something new. Questions are not coming from their own field and may not be the most serious ones, but the most interesting ones, surely.
The public plays a major role in the implementation of the Science Battle. EC2UScienceBattle received dozens of questions about EC2U cities. The most favourable ones have been selected to the competition. During the competition, the audience gets to vote for their favourites, and perhaps even help the team win.
On the first round, on Researchers’ Night of 2021, the battle was performed between Universities of Pavia from Italy, Poitiers from France and Turku from Finland. The winner is University of Pavia!
Year 2022 battle is between Universities of Coimbra from Portugal, Iasi from Romania, Jena from Germany and Salamanca from Spain. On third round the battle will be between of the winners of previous years.
In 2021–2022, the game will be conducted online as well as on-site if corona restrictions allow. The final will be held on the home campus of either finalist.
The First EC2U Science Battle features three six-member and multidisciplinary teams of researchers. Teams are locked in a glass cube for three hours to resolve questions submitted by the audience. Each competition venue has a host. There will be also one or several judges, who will arbitrarily award teams points for wit, entertainment, reasoning, finality, and the audience will be able to give additional points according to their own preference
The public has a significant role to play in the implementation of the event. Questions to researchers are compiled from suggestions received from the public. The public can follow the work of researchers enclosed in glass cubes from the outside or via internet. The audience may also help teams and ask more questions.