On Friday 25 September, BRIGHT-NIGHT, the European Researchers’ Night, returns to Tuscany. Promoted by the European Commission, the initiative brings research out of laboratories and into town squares, museums, schools and everyday spaces, creating opportunities for dialogue and engagement between science and society.
The 2026 edition will focus on the theme of “caring”, understood as responsibility towards people, communities, relationships and the environment. At a time of profound social, environmental and technological change, research is increasingly called upon to make a tangible contribution to collective wellbeing by promoting knowledge that is responsible, ethical and accessible.
BRIGHT-NIGHT 2026 will invite the public to discover how science can become a means of caring from multiple perspectives: from health and personal wellbeing to environmental sustainability, from community participation and knowledge sharing to the responsible development of new technologies, with particular attention to the opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
As in previous years, towns and cities across Tuscany will come alive with workshops, experiments, demonstrations, talks, exhibitions, performances and guided visits to museums and laboratories. Researchers will meet members of the public to present their work and demonstrate how research contributes every day to addressing the major challenges of our time.
The event is promoted by Tuscany’s universities — the University of Florence, the University of Pisa, the University of Siena, the University for Foreigners of Siena, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, the Scuola Normale Superiore, and the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca — together with a broad network of research organisations. These include the Pisa Research Area of the National Research Council (CNR), the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) and the INAF Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, with the support of the Tuscany Region through the Giovanisì programme.
As in previous editions, particular attention will be devoted to children, families and schools, with activities designed to bring younger generations closer to the world of research and knowledge.
The acronym BRIGHT-NIGHT stands for “Brilliant Researchers Impact on Growth Health and Trust in Research”, representing the idea of research as a driver of growth, health and trust. In the 2026 edition, these values come together under the theme of caring. The aim is to promote a vision of science as a common good, capable of responding to society’s needs and contributing to the creation of a fairer and more sustainable future.
The BRIGHT-NIGHT project is funded by the European Commission under the HORIZON-MSCA-2023-CITIZENS-01 programme.
The full programme of events will be available in the coming weeks at www.bright-night.it.
