The European Researchers’ Night is an annual event, taking place across all Europe and attracting millions of research enthusiasts into museums, universities, and research institutions every year. This year’s edition of the event took place on 26 September 2025, giving attendees the opportunity to explore the world of science by discussing key topics and participating in interactive workshops, activities, quizzes and games, all completely free and available to the public. Additionally, it promotes research projects across Europe and beyond, showing researchers’ work and increasing the interest of young people in research and science. 

On behalf of the ANERIS consortium, the BIOPOLIS team proudly represented the project at this year’s edition of the event, demonstrating results and introducing the bioMARatona Portugal. As part of the activities organised, the BIOPOLIS team held a public session, titled “Noite Europeia dos investigadores”, aimed at inspiring citizens to participate in mapping Portuguese intertidal biodiversity. Designed to provide attendees with the necessary training in species identification, the session succeeded in effectively educating citizens on the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems. 

The workshop was divided in three parts, being a project presentation, a practical exercise with intertidal biodiversity aquariums and an interactive session, allowing participants to explore temperature sensors. The project presentation gave an overview of bioMARatona’s objectives, methodology, and results to date. During the intertidal biodiversity aquariums workshop, attendees were given the opportunity to get more familiar with living organisms collected from intertidal zones. To increase engagement, aquariums and tanks were placed, displaying the diversity of local algae species and animals. In addition, classification pamphlets and identification guides were distributed to participants in an attempt to let them classify the species. Finally, the last interactive session provided access to tanks equipped with temperature sensors, explaining how environmental variations and climatic alterations are recorded and studied. It also allowed participants to record and collect the temperature data themselves. 

To enhance the overall experience, a wide screen was placed, showcasing the work of the ANERIS project over the past two years with videos and photos from all project activities. As part of the ANERIS project, bioMARatona was also presented, showcasing results on the MINKA platform and highlighting marine species found during the citizen science sessions.