“European Researchers’ Night” is an emblematic event and an annual meeting where scientists in different EU member states present their achievements and challenges to the general public. Each year, the forum is held simultaneously in about 300 cities across Europe and around the world.

The “European Researchers’ Night” showcases the diversity of science and its impact on citizens’ daily lives, stimulating interest in research careers with a focus on young people.

This year the event was held online (https://nauka.bg/nosht2020/) under the motto “Science changes lives” and its aim was to introduce the broad audience to the achievements of Bulgarian scientists and research teams on EU-funded projects.

The GATE Institute had its own virtual stand and programme, which attracted 27 participants in the event.

The programme highlights included a promotional video about Big Data, AI and GATE; presentation about the Institute made by its director prof. Sylvia Ilieva; presentation of the GATE’s flagship project “City Digital Twin” delivered by Assoc. prof. Dessislava Petrova-Antonova; video dedicated to the young people in data sciences; video-interviews of several young researchers of GATE and an interactive quiz on Big Data and AI.

An important part of the programme was the “award-giving ceremony” of the winners in the child drawing contest “How Does the City Digital Twin Look Like?”. 47 children aged from 9 to 15 years (split into 2 categories – from 9 to 12 years and from 12 to 15 years) took part in the competition and 6 awards were granted to the best drawings, respectively three in each category.