"Our EU Researchers’ Night will use the concept of food as an everyday commodity which is actually a fascinating and engaging research subject, breaking down barriers between cultural, age and socio-economic groups in an exciting interactive portfolio of activities.The City of Birmingham, affectionately known as “Brum” to its residents, has the second biggest population in the UK and is enormously diverse in social, economic and cultural terms. It has one of the best universities both in the UK and globally, a university which itself is enormously international in terms of students, postgraduates and staff origins, a fact which will help us to sell to young people the exciting potential mobility of research careers.The theme of ‘food’ will tie our Researchers’ Night together in two main ways – firstly through the outstanding ongoing multidisciplinary research in the area being performed by passionate and motivated researchers at the University of Birmingham; and secondly, as a universal language for the lay public across regional, national, international and cultural barriers, central to everyday life.Our night will be a multi-disciplinary research fair in the city centre, with a variety of activities for people from all walks of life to have exposure to the exciting research shaping our society. We have proposed a wide range of event types and subjects, and upon funding these will be further refined and developed through involvement and interaction of members of the public with our researchers, starting an early dialogue which opens up research to the community.We will:• Focus on interaction rather than education• Reach a diverse range of age and cultural groups• Create a toolkit and sustainable information resource to help other European cities• Highlight research careers with international mobilityWe intend to reach > 2 million people through our awareness campaign, expecting at least 15,000-20,000 to attend the night."