TU1208 GPR Roadshow: Educational and promotional activities carried out by Members of COST Action TU1208 to increase public awareness on the potential and capabilities of the GPR technique

Our participation in the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) programme gave us significant insights into the importance of explaining scientific findings to non-scientific audiences. In the framework of COST Action TU1208 “Civil engineering applications of Ground Penetrating Radar” we organised a series of dissemination activities to increase public awareness about ground penetrating radar (GPR) capabilities and applications, as well as to establish a dialogue with stakeholders and end-users of our research. Most of our educational and promotional activities were carried out in less-research intensive countries of the European continent, and we denominated the overall science communication initiative “TU1208 GPR Roadshow”. The purpose of this paper is to present descriptions, principles, and results of our Roadshow. Part of the Roadshow consisted of a series of non-scientific workshops and practical demonstrations held in Portugal, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, and the Czech Republic from March 2016 to May 2017. The primary objective of those events was to reach out to GPR stakeholders and potential new end users, at local, regional and national levels; a secondary goal was the education of interested students and citizens. Attendance was always free of charge; talks and explanations were mostly given in native language, with few exceptions. Overall, the Roadshow workshops and demonstrations had 483 participants. In parallel, an amazing series of activities with children and citizens were carried out in Estonia: several lectures were delivered in elementary and secondary schools, practical workshops were held during the Researchers’ Nights, communication activities were organized in large events where enterprises were brought together with researchers, some lectures were given in summer schools, and short lectures were transmitted on public TV. All these initiatives have strongly increased public awareness of the potentialities of the GPR technique.