ICTA-UAB researchers bring science to bars at Pint of Science
Science is once again leaving the laboratory and heading into bars. ICTA-UAB researchers Cristina Pérez Sánchez and Charlotte Liotta will take part in a new edition of the international Pint of Science festival, a global initiative that transforms bars and everyday spaces into meeting points between science and society.
How would our lives change if we shared energy with our neighbours? Why is it so difficult to reach agreements on climate policies, even when there is broad public support for climate action? These and other questions will be explored by ICTA-UAB researchers during the Pint of Science festival, which will take place from 18 to 20 May in different venues across Sabadell and other cities.
This international science outreach event brings together researchers from multiple disciplines to share their work with the public in an informal, participatory and accessible environment. Bars thus become spaces where people can discuss energy, climate, health, technology or human behaviour in a close and understandable way for all audiences.
On Wednesday, 20 May at 7:00 pm, at The Wild Geese bar in Sabadell, ICTA-UAB predoctoral researcher Cristina Pérez Sánchez will take part in the session “Invisible Connections: Energy, Nature and the Rules of Our World” with the talk “Sharing energy: a social experiment in progress”. She will explain how energy communities allow citizens to collectively produce and share renewable energy, and how these initiatives also function as social experiments that transform the way we consume, cooperate and make decisions about energy.
That same day, also at 7:00 pm, ICTA-UAB postdoctoral researcher Charlotte Liotta will participate in the session “Big Questions, Tiny Solutions: Science Across Scales” at L’Estruch Bar in Sabadell. In her talk, “Can we ever agree on climate policies?”, she will analyse how citizens perceive climate policies and why some measures generate opposition while others receive broad social support. The talk will address issues related to climate justice, the distribution of costs and benefits, and the design of fairer and more effective policies.
The Pint of Science festival was founded in 2013 at Imperial College London with the idea of taking science out of laboratories and bringing it directly to the places where people gather. Since then, it has become one of the world’s largest science outreach events, currently present in dozens of countries and hundreds of cities worldwide.
ICTA-UAB’s participation in this initiative reflects the centre’s commitment to open science that is close to society and capable of fostering public dialogue on some of today’s main environmental and social challenges.