All set for Norway’s national research festival

National Science Week 2010 starts on Friday 24 September. During the week-long festival the Research Council and collaborators across the country work together in a large-scale communal effort to promote science and research.

The overall theme for the sixteenth National Science Week is “The Tools of Research”.

“The Government and the Research Council are investing considerable resources in upgrading the equipment and infrastructure available to Norwegian researchers. Some of the new, advanced tools of research will be showcased during National Science Week,” explains Sidsel Flock Bachmann of the National Science Week secretariat.

Researchers link up with the general public

Across the country researchers will be taking their work out to the general public, presenting their research on town squares and streets, in shopping centres, tents, cafes and restaurants, in libraries, on stages and at luncheons and, in a one-day event, on all the ships in the Hurtigruten fleet.

Science fairs, which combine a large number of activities into one event, will be held in all the major cities in Norway, as well as in many smaller urban centres. National Science Week 2010 will be officially opened in Bergen, where, on Friday 24 September, Minister of Research and Higher Education Tora Aasland will have the honour of launching the festival.

Grand Prix for researchers

This year National Science week is inviting researchers to participate in a completely new type of event entitled Researcher Grand Prix, which will be held at various locations across the country. In this event, young researchers take the stage and are given four minutes to talk about their research. The researcher best able to communicate his/her research will be crowned the winner.

“We can hardly wait for the curtain to go up,” says Jørgen Flint, who is responsible for National Science Week activities in Bergen.

Something for everyone

Almost all of the National Science Week events are free of charge and open to all. For more information about the various event locations, see the festival programme (in Norwegian).

National Science Week is administered under the auspices of the Research Council, which has national responsibility for coordinating the festival.

Source: Research Council of Norway