Euro-BioImaging at the Festival della Scienza in Genoa

Genoa’s “Festival della Scienza”, is one of the leading scientific dissemination events in Italy, and is an international point of reference for science communication. From October 23-November 2, 2025, the city transformed itself into an open-air laboratory where science meets society, with a special focus on school-aged children. Organized in iconic locations across the city, from museums to libraries, historic buildings and universities, the Festival della Scienza 2025 marked the 23rd edition of this beloved festival. This year, the theme was "Interlacement", involving different aspects of lifespan including health and its monitoring. The rich programme spanned conferences, exhibitions, workshops, performances, and special events, suitable for audiences of all ages and levels of knowledge. In a competitive process, our colleagues Sara Belloli, Silvia Valtorta and Federica Baldassari, researchers at IBSBC-CNR, part of the MMMI Italian Node, were selected to organise a living “laboratory” at this festival. Learn more about their successful interactive exhibit entitled, “Imagine the Invisible.” 

Imagine the invisible

After a competitive application process which required the submission of two different applications, Sara, Silvia and Federica learned in August 2025 that their “Imagine the Invisible” proposal had been selected to be part of the Festival della Scienza 2025. With under two months to prepare all of the activities, Sara, Silvia and Federica started working to develop an interactive “laboratory” to share basic concepts of cell and molecular biology, as well as the fundamental concepts underlying imaging technologies.

"Being part of Festival della Scienza is quite competitive as applicants must present a project and go through multiple selection steps but in the end, we made it!" says Sara.

An interactive & accessible programme 

The activities Sara, Silvia and Federica organised had to be fun and easy for schools and families to engage with. The idea was to explain the basic principles of cellular metabolism, pathophysiology and monitoring through medical imaging such as PET, CT and MRI. 

To explain these principles, Sara, Silvia, and Federica developed a 1.5 hour “laboratory” for high school students. As an introduction, they prepared posters with theoretical principles to explain the scientific theories to the students. As Sara and her colleagues would not stay in Genoa for the duration of the event, they trained several science “stewards,” local university students in scientific fields, to present the material in 30 minutes.

An innovative approach to engagement

Then, two smaller groups (7-8 people) were formed to play the two main board games prepared by Sara, Silvia and Federica: the “Imaging Game of the Goose” (similar to Snakes and Ladders) and the “Game of metabolism.” Each group got 30 minutes to understand and play the first game, then they switched. Additional activities, such as memory and puzzles, completed the fun activities.

"The most challenging part was having enough time to finalise our ideas and write up all the explanations and instructions," says Silvia. “This is quite different from European Researcher’s Night where we are present for the activities at all times. In this case, we needed to train the science stewards to talk to the students about our topics, and run the games. It was challenging, but also very rewarding. In the end, it was quite a success, we got a lot of positive feedback.”

Impact with students

The day before the event started, Sara, Silvia and Federica set up a room in the cloister of Santa Maria al Castello in Genoa and trained the stewards who managed the gaming activities during the event.

Many groups of high school students participated in the activities: about 20-30 students per day, accompanied by 2-3 teachers.

The activities had an excellent response from the public, with over 90% rating the experience very positively, with 4 to 5 stars in the satisfaction survey.

On the last day, Sara, Silvia and Federica returned to Genoa to conclude the activities and give candies and pins to the participants and science stewards! Everyone loved the “pin factory” which allowed them to make personalised pins. The science stewards were even collecting them! 

“Overall, it was very successful. It was rewarding to work with the science facilitators and inspiring to be in the town of Genoa - which was transformed into a city-wide science theme park for 11 days.  Plus, we got to try out new scientific dissemination activities with lots of positive feedback,” concludes Sara. 

Euro-BioImaging is pleased to have supported the MMMI Node's participation in this event via the our Sponsorship programme.