The European Researchers’ Night is the largest science outreach event in Europe, and it has been celebrated last Friday, 27 September 2024 in all Europe. The REDRESS project has responded to the EU Call for this exhibition. UNIVPM and ECOREACH in the Ancona downtown and IMAR-UAz in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Island (Azores), have promoted the different tasks and activities of the REDRESS project with special focus on the biodiversity of deep-sea habitats and the new challenges for their ecological restoration and innovative solutions for the monitoring of the interventions.
UNIVPM and ECOREACH were supported by rollups and posters to present the REDRESS tasks to the audience. Special attention was also dedicated to the children with games and activities showing the beaty and the importance of the life underwater. The event allowed also a direct interaction with researchers and stakeholders on the importance of deep-sea habitats and the effects of deep-sea restoration to society and economy. The Research Night was also the occasion to show the potential of research on marine ecosystems with the networking with other EU ongoing initiatives CLIMAREST, DIG4ECO, DIVERSEA, LifeDREAM and FORESCUE supported by different partners of the REDRESS project.
Marina Carreiro-Silva from the Azores Deep-Sea Research Group, Okeanos-University of the Azores, participated in the event organized at Portas do Mar pavilion in São Miguel Island, Azores. Together with Observatório do Mar dos Açores, a scientific and cultural non-profit association, they have organized a series of interactive demonstrations about the biology, ecology of cold-water corals, including a taxonomic key that guided both children and grow-ups on the differences between the coral taxa, including stony corals, black corals, gorgonians and soft corals. At the event, Marina also shared REDRESS’ objectives and innovative approaches for the restoration of vulnerable deep-sea habitats. The European Researchers’ Night was also the occasion to present the sister Horizon Europe project BioProtect (https://bioprotect-project.eu/).
