The winners of the 2020 Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards have just been announced at the Directors Forum by Sharon Ament, Chairperson of the Jury and Director of the Museum of London.

Maya Halevy (Director of Bloomfield Science Museum, Jerusalem, Israel) won the Beacon of the Year Award for personal embodiment of our network’s values and for her remarkable impact within the science engagement field.

There were two winners for this year's Sustainable Success award: Copernicus Science Centre (Warsaw, Poland) for their Young Explorers Clubs - a self-sustaining project whose objective is to enable children and young adults to develop collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving skills by getting to know the world better through hands-on scientific experiments, and IMAGINARY (Berlin, Germany), a non-profit organisation who promote and focus on celebrating mathematics and on engaging the general public to experience and play with current research of mathematics with their project IMAGINARY exhibition.

A warm thank you to the LIP laboratory, generous contributor to the Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards.

Maya Halevy wins the 2020 ‘Beacon of the Year’

The Beacon of the Year Award celebrates inspirational individuals who have been contributing to our field and to the Ecsite network. The Award recognises innovative visionaries who are empowering and motivating their peers to reach a common goal: emboldening citizens to engage with science.

Maya Halevy is the Museum Director and Chief Curator of the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem and has had a remarkable impact not only within her own organisation, but across the entire science engagement network. She has initiated strategic programmes with the Jerusalem Municipality and with the Ministry of Education to promote and develop infrastructure for a science education ecosystem. She is a member of the steering committee of the 5p2 – a national initiative that works closely with the Ministry of Education, that set the goal to bring Israel to be among the top fifteen countries in the world based on the quality of its STEM education by 2025. She is active in the international science museums organisation circuit and has built strong links with science museums across Europe and North America.

Perhaps most impressive about Maya winning this award was that the nomination came from peers outside her organisation and was supported by a very broad range of people within the network. She has tackled the complexities of working in such an area within her stride, always seeking to improve and inspire. Those who nominated Maya for the award explain that one of her most outstanding skills is "her generosity in sharing knowledge and resources, as well as her desire and ability to collaborate."

Upon receiving her award Maya remarked that "we used to think of Ecsite as a network of science centres and museums, but Covid -19 has shown us that Ecsite is a unique collaboratory of people and not just institutions; people that engage with people for people."

Maya is an active member of the Ecsite network, having attended the Ecsite Conference since 1999, during which she has acted as a speaker, convenor and even project exhibitor.

One of her most outstanding skills is "her generosity in sharing knowledge and resources, as well as her desire and ability to collaborate."

"The standard of the nominations was this year incredibly high, but Maya's extraordinary contribution to the field and to her peers is remarkable", explained Sharon Ament, Chairperson of the Jury.

Copernicus and Imaginary joint winners of the ‘Sustainable Success’ prize

The Sustainable Success category celebrates long-lasting impact: projects that embody the values of science engagement, that are visionary and socially relevant.

Copernicus Science Centre (Warsaw, Poland) and Imaginary (Berlin, Germany) won in the Sustainable Success category; Copernicus for “Young Explorers Clubs (YECs)" - a self-sustaining project whose objective is to enable children and young adults to develop skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving through hands-on scientific experiments and Imaginary for IMAGINARY exhibition, focusing on engaging the general public to experience and play with mathematics.

The jury were extremely impressed by the standard of applications this year, but the two winning projects were of such a high standard that the jury chose to honour both as winners. Both projects are achieving incredible success and doing huge amounts for communities, but with very little resources. Furthermore, the jury found there to be an intrinsic generosity in both projects despite their global success and appeal. They were both developed at a local level and have found a way to share their projects sustainably in other countries. Both projects provide a global connectivity, a strong global reach and a true spirit of generosity which shines through.

Both projects are achieving incredible success and doing huge amounts for communities, but with very little resources.

Copernicus Science Centre: Young Explorers Clubs

The idea behind YECs is simple and universal: to tap into natural human curiosity, thereby supporting the learning process and fostering better understanding of the world’s phenomena and their interdependencies.

The YEC programme usually takes the form of extracurricular activities for children and adolescents between 3 and 20 years of age, run by educators, who are volunteering their time and work. Educators are mainly teachers, but they can also be employees of libraries, cultural centres, science centres and museums. Their role is to support club members in discovering the world, which is why they are called mentors. Children and teenagers work in groups. They conduct experiments and learn through experience working like scientists using the scientific method. Depending on their age and interests, club members are actively learning laws of physics, exploring the secrets of biology or conducting research projects.

YECs focus on autonomy; participation is voluntary. Participants and their mentors decide together what they want to do and how. In open learning situations designed by the mentors, participants enjoy freedom, and what they do is not subject to traditional assessment. Engagement through discussion, questions, experiments, and efforts to identify and solve problems all matter more than knowledge of facts or definitions.

Opting away from central management, the scheme instead invited public institutions and education-sector NGOs to form a network of partnership-based collaboration and there are currently twelve autonomous partner institutions that coordinate the activity of YECs locally. Some of the programme’s resources are already available in English, Russian, and Georgian, and some of them will soon become available in Ukrainian.

The jury were particularly impressed by the way in which Copernicus had created and developed a model at a local level and which was being used in local schools in Poland, and then developed this model in such a way that they were able to share it sustainably in many other countries; "a true example of a scaling-up strategy which has worked."

Having received the award, Zuzanna Michalska, Head of the YEC remarked ”I have been working with teachers for the better education for years and I strongly believe in the power of a professional network. People share ideas for lessons and projects, encourage each other. That's why YEC programme works, and I am proud to be part of it. I think this is a very good practice and thanks to the award more people get to know YEC programme, Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw, Poland and our friend, Polish-American Freedom Foundation.”

Imaginary: IMAGINARY Exhibition

Imaginary have created community-based collaboration project in which everybody can contribute. The project focuses on celebrating and engaging the public with mathematics and mathematics-related research by using experiences and play-based exploration. The concept was created in 2007 and now consists of over 350 exhibition activities in 60 countries and in 30 different languages, making this a truly global experience. All of the activities are organised by or have support from local communities. The project invites all to create, to play, and to be part of current research in mathematics. It connects to the arts and other fields such as music, photography, design, architecture and fashion.

All of the exhibitions are connected to an exhibition platform, where all the content is collected and shared across the network. Furthermore, new technologies are often used, such as touchscreens and 3D printing (back in 2007) and using mixed reality (2016). There are currently three fully developed exhibitions and a fourth exhibition, "I am A.I." will be launched in early 2021 (postponed from April 2020).

The project not only shares the (digital) content of all their exhibits, but shares all data they have, including funding proposals, building manuals, templates for poster or flyer design, press releases, training manuals or explanation videos. The idea is to fully share and to fully collaborate.

What really impressed the jury was that the project has managed to include all regions of the planet, especially regions with less infrastructure, decreased science communication culture or fewer economic possibilities. The exhibitions were the first of their kind in many countries. They also reach out to rural areas in countries such as Russia, Uruguay, Turkey, Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cape Verde.

The open source exhibitions communicate mathematics (a topic which can be controversial) in an engaging way. The open approach (and easy motivation of many different audiences) allows many people to engage by not only “visiting” an exhibit, but also creating one, capturing the minds and crucially, the imaginations of many citizens, but on a global scale.

Upon receiving the award, Andreas Daniel Matt, Chief Executive Officer of IMAGINARY commented that "this award goes to opening up science communication. It honours the power and importance of open source exhibitions and museums. Open science communication will revolutionise how a broad public is engaged, how it can co-create, and become part of the science communication process.”

The jury praised Imaginary for their boldness, saying, "maths is one of the biggest challenges to inspire people with" and "if you can reveal the maths behind the universe you can connect to the world." The project was also praised for its innovative approach and bolder, new philosophy.

The Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards

Created in 2015, the Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards encourage creative and impactful work within the informal science education sector.

The awards are named after José Mariano Gago (1948 - 2015), a key figure of European science engagement. He was a founder of the Portuguese Ciência Viva network of science centres and an active contributor to Ecsite activities over the years.

Open to all Ecsite members, they provide an incentive and reward whose prestige contributes to the development of excellence in science engagement.

Find out more on our dedicated page.