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The Long Night of the Sciences (German: Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften) has become an established form of public relations activity in Germany. On one night of the year, large scientific institutions hold lectures and demonstrations for the general public in order to present themselves and a general overview of their research topics. The events cover all aspects of science, from natural sciences to social sciences. The public can usually visit the institutions between around 5pm and 1am on the "Long Night of the Sciences" in exchange for a fee.
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Origin
The format of the event is inspired by the successful Long Night of Museums in Berlin. The event first took place as part of the Science Summer 2000 (German: Wissenschaftssommers 2000) event in Bonn. Berlin organized a similar event the following year and gained a larger response, with a total of 61,972 visitors.
Distribution
Besides Berlin, this event format has also been successfully implemented in other scientific locations, including:
Berlin and Potsdam
The program for the 9th "Long Night of the Sciences" in Berlin and Potsdam on 13 June 2009 featured more than 2,000 individual events held by 67 participants in 160 buildings. 15 special bus routes were provided for the night. There were around 238,750 visitors in total.
Nuremberg, Fürth, Erlangen
"The Long Night of the Sciences" in the region of Nuremberg, Fürth and Erlangen is held every two years and offers events in the fields of natural sciences, technology, medicine and health as well as social, cultural and economic sciences. The event, which started in 2003, will open its doors for the seventh time on Saturday 24th of October 2015. The goal is to build a bridge between research and public. The program contains a wide range of exhibitions, experiments and presentations - hosted by more than 300 institutions including the six regional universities as well as innovative companies and local establishments. In the afternoon there is also a special program for children. During the night the participating institutions will be connected by a special bus service driving ten different routes.
In 2013 there had been registered more than 30.000 participants on 130 locations. Most of the visitors were younger than 30 years.