The BRIGHT-NIGHT 2026–2027 proposal, within the framework of the European Researchers’ Night, aims to bring research and researchers closer to the general public across the Tuscany region. The BRIGHT-NIGHT Consortium brings together the main Tuscan universities and national research centres based in Tuscany, whose decade-long collaboration has already resulted in highly successful events. The project will achieve its objectives by showcasing research projects through a rich and inclusive programme of public activities throughout Tuscany. It seeks to raise awareness of how scientific research impacts citizens’ daily lives, the active role it plays in shaping the future, and its potential to inspire young people’s interest in research — with a particular focus on inclusion and the promotion of STEAM disciplines. After a series of preparatory activities, the core events will take place on the last Friday of September 2026 and 2027, featuring hundreds of interactive, entertaining and inspiring activities in cities across Tuscany. During these days, urban spaces will turn into lively science hubs hosting shows, hands-on experiments, games, competitions and exhibitions, promoting direct interaction between researchers and citizens. The two-year duration of the project will allow the active involvement of primary and secondary school students, encouraging them to deliver scientific presentations during the Nights. They will be supported by academic researchers, who will guide them in selecting and preparing their topics. Researchers will also receive training in science communication to enhance their ability to engage the public. Through these actions, BRIGHT-NIGHT aims to foster a lasting connection between researchers, students and society, making science more familiar and understandable, and ultimately strengthening public trust in research and in the scientific method.

FascLit investigates the relationship between literature and totalitarianism by focusing on three literary prizes which took place in the 1930s in Fascist Italy: “Poeti del tempo di Mussolini”, “Cervia” and “Viareggio”. While Mussolini never imposed predefined aesthetic criteria on art, he thought a new literature would rise spontaneously from living in a truly Fascist country. What is common to the three prizes analysed is that they were controlled, directly or indirectly, by Galeazzo Ciano, Minister of Press and Propaganda from 1935 and from 1936 Minister of Foreign Affairs. Thus, they represent a prominent and concrete case study for exploring how Fascist politicians tried to shape Italian culture and how artistic and personal ambitions sought to contribute to the creation of the Fascist civilisation Mussolini called for. The aim of FascLit is indeed twofold: to reconstruct the history and dynamics of the three prizes and the networks of intellectuals involved based on archival work; to analyse the prize-winning works by combining the traditional tools of literary analysis with the cutting-edge tools of digital textometry to understand what “Fascist literature” meant for the Fascists. Thanks to a multi-disciplinary approach at the intersection of history, sociology of culture and literature, this project aims to systematically analyse the three prizes, bringing together the political and institutional aspects and the cultural and literary dimension. It will result in the publication of three peer-reviewed articles and in the creation of an online publicly and freely accessible portal on literary prizes during Fascism. As such, FascLit will not only offer the first scientific study of an as yet little explored historical and literary product. By analysing the concrete relationships between literature and politics in Fascist Italy, it will also pave the way for a broader understanding and further exploration of the interrelation between culture and totalitarianism.

The BRIGHT-NIGHT 2022-2023 proposal, within the framework of the European Researchers' Night, aims at bringing research and researchers closer to the general public of the Tuscan region. In fact, the BRIGHT-NIGHT Consortium includes the main Tuscan universities whose decennial collaboration has already produced very successful ERN events. This objective will be achieved by showcasing research projects, with a specific focus on sustainability and societal challenges, through a rich and inclusive program of activities in open and public events throughout Tuscany. We will increase the awareness of how scientific research impacts on the daily lives of citizens, on the active role it can play in shaping the future and fostering young people’s interest in scientific studies with a gender balance approach, mostly in STEAM. After a set of preparatory events, the core activities will take place the last Friday/Saturday of September 2022/2023: hundreds of interactive, funny and inspiring activities in the cities, which will be populated by science hubs (shows, hands-on experiments, games, competitions, and exhibitions). To better stress the centrality of a joint European effort on the societal and sustainability challenges of our times, the event will revolve around the Horizon Europe missions, with particular emphasis on their interdisciplinary character. The two-year duration of the proposal will allow the involvement of students from primary and secondary schools encouraging to deliver a scientific presentation during the Nights: they will be supported by academic researchers, who will help them to select and prepare a topic. This activity aims at creating a long-term connection between researchers, (which will be trained on scientific communication skills for the purpose), young students and the general public. Such connection will make science research more "familiar", more understandable, and ultimately strengthen people’s trust in scientific methods.

The BRIGHT project aims at enhancing the visibility and perception of researchers among the general population in the Tuscany Region, simultaneously with all the European Researchers’ Night (ERN) initiatives. BRIGHT acronym means “Brilliant Researchers Impact on Growth Health and Trust in research”, wishing to underline the positive aspect of the research activity in order to convey a positive message to the general public. BRIGHT is planned in for two years - i.e. two events, one in 2016 and another in 2017 - and livens up not only two “nights” with entertaining and exciting events spread across the main Tuscany cities, but it also creates a lot of initiatives aiming at building permanent “Research Urban Trekking” paths leading towards the complete awareness of the researcher’s role in society. “Researchers make your life better!” is the guiding principle stemming from the passion, the enthusiasm and hard intellectual work of researchers’ daily work and how this contributes to the well-being of the general population. BRIGHT focuses on creating awareness on the important role played by researchers in addressing the great challenges ahead, such as health and wellbeing, new technologies, sustainable development, physical and biological challenges, cultural heritage. BRIGHT will be successful if it will be able to convince the population of the IMPACT of the researchers and the research's products for the development of the society, and to make people TRUST the researchers instead of being driven away by hoaxes with no scientific basis.

The BRIGHT-NIGHT project aims to improve the visibility and image of researchers among the common people in the Tuscany Region, simultaneously with all the initiatives of the European Researchers' Night (ERN). The name BRIGHT, coined in 2013 and used in the subsequent ERN editions, was kept for the 2020 project because it is now established and recognizable throughout the entire academic community, the media and the population of Tuscany at large. Nonetheless, after 6 years it was deemed advisable to refresh the brand for the new edition adding “NIGHT” for playing on the concept that it will be a night in which the future will seem brighter thanks to the outcome of research and the passion of researchers. The project is scheduled for the year 2020 and will last from Friday to Saturday on the date scheduled for ERN. In these two days there will be hundreds of fun and exciting activities that will involve the main Tuscan cities, that will follow on from a set of preparatory events. The 20th anniversary of the European Charter of Rights and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations constitute the framework within which the topics will be developed and declined in the directions of social and environmental sustainability. BRIGHT-NIGHT will involve the population, and in particular young students from primary and secondary schools, through the project of some scientific citizens and through pre-events spread throughout the period. This long-term involvement aims to create a strong link between researchers (who will also participate in a course on scientific communication), young students and the general population in order to make researchers more "familiar" and better understand to people how researchers work and live and why to trust them. The locations of the activities are: university premises, museums, botanical gardens, institutional buildings and especially streets and squares in the city centres.