What is Bilbo Zientzia Plaza? Bilbo Zientzia Plaza (BZP) is a project of the Chair of Scientific Culture at UPV/EHU and is the state’s most important scientific outreach festival. It offers a program filled with various types, tones, and initiatives to engage both adults and youth with science. Over three weeks, a series of free, interconnected events are offered. These include street exhibitions (Zientzia Kalean), guided tours, humorous science monologues (Ciencia Show), conferences (Naukas PRO and Naukas Bilbao), live experiments, documentary forums, shows, children’s workshops (Naukas Kids), or educational sessions combining bertsos (a traditional Basque form of poetry) with science (Bertsozientzia), or others that mix art, science, or dance with science.

Scientific outreach activities are common in our society. Many such initiatives are organized during the school year, often by universities, research centers, associations, foundations, or public institutions. Among these are events tied to specific calendar dates: Science Week, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the European Researchers’ Night, or International Pi Day. These events feature numerous activities to share the intricacies of science and the work of those who pursue scientific careers. These are called "supplementary activities," meaning they fall outside regular cultural programming and align with specific events or initiatives, often organized as university activities during the school year.

Bilbo Zientzia Plaza was born to break from the norm. It aims to step outside predefined contexts, worlds or dates to show that science can be part of cultural life and enjoyed year-round.

THE SPORES OF SCIENCE IN A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

But BZP has other purposes as well. Incorporating scientific outreach into cultural programming affects how knowledge is shared. Presenting scientific topics in formats we consume during our leisure time is like spreading the spores of a plant: new seeds are dispersed into unconventional environments. Studies have shown that we acquire a significant part of our scientific knowledge outside formal academia: visiting museums, going on guided tours, attending talks, participating in workshops, or consuming scientific content.

Scientific communication experts like Vladimir de Semir, a journalist and director of the Scientific Communication Observatory at Pompeu Fabra University, echo this idea. They stress the importance of these activities: “Contrary to popular belief, people learn science outside of formal environments: less than 5% of a person’s life is spent in formal education. Therefore, the key to increasing public understanding of science lies in the remaining 95% of our lives.”

Based on this, the key to influencing scientific literacy is recognizing both the time and space we spend outside academia and organizing outreach programs that fit into leisure activities. Thus, why not make space for science within cultural programs? Bilbo Bizkaia Plaza is held each year to address this question, offering a festival that invites people to enjoy and expand their scientific knowledge.

LEARNING BY ENJOYING

Leisure brings us into a unique setting, away from our daily tasks, where we merge free time with enjoyable or entertaining activities to rest. Watching a movie, attending a bertso session, joining a roundtable, visiting an exhibition, listening to a recital, taking part in a book club or attending a conference series are activities we find useful, beneficial, or pleasant and, in any case, enjoyable.

At Bilbo Zientzia Plaza, we enjoy two consecutive days filled with fascinating stories presented by more than 70 science and outreach professionals from European, national, and local research centers. These stories include, for example, that lucid dreams can be controlled, that the history of life can be told through art, that certain clouds can cause fires, that humans begin understanding words before birth, that plants can move from one place to another, or that there are astronomical objects in space that become younger over time.

We enjoy, for example, a science cartoon exhibition by Forges. We marvel as a physicist explains their tools during a guided tour. We delight in learning biology by observing animal tracks in Bilbao parks. We laugh at a science monologue at the Bidebarrieta Library. We’re amazed with our children when we see science and circus come together in a juggling show at the Abandoibarra esplanade.

We recognize that BZP does not appeal to everyone. Yet, there will be those who attend an event and find enjoyment, others who are moved, and still others who return home with a curiosity to learn more. Regardless, anyone who attends a BZP event will leave with something new: a fact, a story, an event, or something unknown before that enhances their scientific literacy.

Each year, BZP gathers over 6,000 people in various venues. Thanks to live broadcasts by EITB, thousands more (39,000 in 2023) watch, for example, the talks given at the Euskalduna Bilbao Auditorium. However, these outcomes would be impossible without the proactive attitude of the public, keen to expand their understanding of science.

Bilbo Zientzia Plaza (BZP) was born in 2017 through the efforts of the Chair of Scientific Culture at UPV/EHU and the Government of Biscay. The BZP project began as Bilbo Zientzia Plaza, but soon relocated to Bilbao, consolidating as Bilbo Zientzia Plaza with support from the city council. From September 10 to 30, 2024, BZP celebrated its seventh edition. For three weeks, the science-filled stages across Bilbao became the setting for a special protagonist: science, showcased across a wide range of topics.

After eight years, Bilbo Zientzia Plaza has proven that scientific outreach has a place in cultural programming, that scientific topics belong in public spaces, and that by enjoying science, we can expand our knowledge. Indeed, science has its own square.