What words spring to mind when we think of ‘university’? And what if, for one evening, we were the ones to decide the headline of a news story? It was with these two questions that CIES-Iscte took over the cloister of the National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC) in Lisbon during the European Researchers’ Night 2026. Between 5.00 pm and 11.00 pm, around 160 visitors of all ages took part in two interactive activities that turned social science research topics into open discussions.
What is our idea of a university?
The first activity, led by researchers Federica Cagnoli and Aline Hernández, under the guidance of Marta Entradas, began with a seemingly simple question: how does society perceive universities, and what role and value does it attribute to them?
To answer this, around 80 participants filled in cards on which they wrote down at least three words, ideas or associations that came to mind when they heard the word ‘university’. They then rated the universities in their country on a scale of 1 to 7, between pairs of opposing qualities: elitist or accessible to all, old-fashioned or modern, focused on their own interests or dedicated to helping others. Each card contributes a small part to a picture that only becomes clear when all the perspectives are brought together.
It is this collective picture that the initiative seeks to build, in order to fuel the discussion on trust in higher education institutions, their role in society and the path towards becoming more inclusive and better able to meet the needs of diverse communities.
The initiative forms part of the PuReSC project – Public Reception of Science Communication, funded by national funds from the FCT. Co-ordinated by Marta Entradas, a researcher at CIES-Iscte, this large-scale comparative study analyses how the public perceives universities’ communication efforts, drawing on empirical research in Portugal, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom (main partners), alongside the United States and Taiwan (associated partners). The methodology focuses on university communication aimed at its target audiences and is applied to representative samples of the population in each country, with audience segmentation. Also collaborating on the project are Martin Bauer (The London School of Economics and Political Science), Frank Marcinkowski (Institute of Social Sciences, HHU-Düsseldorf), Giuseppe Pellegrini (Observa Science in Society), John Besley (Michigan State University) and Yiu Li (National Sun Yat-sen University).
What if you were the editor?
In the second activity, the roles were reversed: around 80 visitors took on the role of editor. Armed with real press cuttings from the Portuguese media covering environmental activism, they were challenged to come up with their own headlines and, in doing so, to understand how the media’s framing shapes the way we interpret the world.
The initiative stemmed from Anapaula Folha’s PhD research, Communication in Climate Activism and the Public Debate on Climate Change in Portugal, supervised by Mehmet Ali Üzelgün. The study is based on a key observation of our times: climate activism is occupying an increasingly prominent place in public debate. But how does activist communication generate visibility, shape discourses and influence social and political perceptions in Portugal?
To answer this, the research explores three strands: coverage of climate activism in the Portuguese press, analysed using multimodal analysis; the discursive reactions of Portuguese politicians to high-profile activist actions, examined through Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA); and an insider’s perspective, involving participant observation of how activists themselves plan, carry out and evaluate their actions in terms of their communicative effects. The aim is to understand the contribution activist communication makes to raising awareness of climate issues.
By presenting these two proposals to the MUHNAC academic council, CIES-Iscte reaffirmed its commitment to bringing social science research closer to society, through a dialogue that is conducted with the public and not merely for them.
