Polish university delivering Researchers' Night public events to engage young people with science through hands-on edutainment in the Warmia-Mazury region.
Olsztyn School of Higher Education (OSW) is a Polish private university that has channelled its H2020 participation entirely into science popularisation — specifically the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Researchers' Night programme. Their practical contribution is organising public-facing events in the Warmia-Mazury region that bring scientists into direct contact with general audiences, with a strong emphasis on reaching young people. They design and deliver "edutaining" formats — hands-on experiments, demonstrations, and interactive activities — intended to make research accessible and appealing outside the academic world. Their work sits squarely in the public engagement tradition: changing how ordinary people perceive scientists and sparking interest in research careers.
Both FUSION NIGHT (2014) and FUSION2NIGHT (2016) are Researchers' Night events explicitly designed to connect researchers with the public and demonstrate the impact of science on daily life.
FUSION2NIGHT introduced a hands-on experiment format and formalised the 'edutainment' approach, building on the interactive activities piloted in FUSION NIGHT.
FUSION NIGHT specifically targeted young people to inspire interest in research careers, a thread carried forward through both projects.
FUSION2NIGHT added an explicit focus on reducing stereotypes about researchers — a more mature, evidence-aware framing that appeared only in the later project.
Life sciences is listed as a keyword domain in FUSION NIGHT, suggesting their event programming draws on biology or medicine topics to engage non-specialist audiences.
Between 2014 and 2017, OSW's framing of science engagement became noticeably more sophisticated. The first project (FUSION NIGHT) was oriented around inspiration — making research careers look fascinating and showing how science touches daily life. By the second project (FUSION2NIGHT), the emphasis had shifted toward active participation through hands-on experiments and toward dismantling negative public perceptions of scientists, not just promoting the field. The evolution suggests the team moved from broad science promotion toward a more targeted behaviour-change model, addressing specific psychological and cultural barriers that keep people disconnected from research.
OSW was moving from passive science showcasing toward participatory formats that directly challenge public misconceptions — but their H2020 activity ended in 2016, so whether this trajectory continued is unknown.
OSW has never led a project; in both cases they joined as a participant in a small, locally-focused consortium. Their network is extremely tight — just two unique partners, all within a single country — which points to a pattern of working with a fixed local circle rather than building new European connections project by project. This suggests they function as a dependable regional delivery partner for science communication initiatives, rather than an organisation that drives project design or consortium assembly.
OSW's European footprint is minimal: two unique partners, all in Poland, across both projects. There is no evidence of cross-border consortium experience, which makes them a locally embedded partner rather than a broadly connected European node.
OSW is one of relatively few higher education institutions in northeastern Poland with any H2020 track record in science communication, giving them a verifiable regional presence for outreach-oriented projects. Their specific niche — the Researchers' Night format, delivered through interactive public events — is narrow but real, and carries EU-level certification of delivery capacity. For a consortium needing a Polish partner with documented public engagement experience in the Warmia-Mazury region, they fill a gap that larger Warsaw or Kraków universities may not cover as naturally.
