In Trieste as many as 37.1 out of 1000 workers are researchers, more than the average in the US (7.4), EU (5.0), Japan (9.2) and much more than the national average in Italy (3.3). This result is due to the fact that an increasingly important role has been played in Trieste since the 1960’s by specialized international institutes of advanced studies and applied research. These research centers have links with vast areas of the globe, particularly the developing world and Eastern Europe. Nowadays the “Trieste System” is known throughout the world and constitutes a model in which university research, centers of excellence and points of technology transfer cooperate at a local, national and international level to produce, transfer and manage knowledge. This system of research and technological development is essential for the region and for employment opportunities. The project “Researcher’s Night 2009” will focus on (i) the image of researchers as “ordinary” people who are part of the daily life of the city in which they have chosen to live and work. (ii) Researchers as a resource for the local territory: the world’s greatest resource lies in its people, their ideas and knowledge. In this respect researchers are crucial for stimulating and transferring ideas, taking them in other parts of the world, and for receiving and adapting ideas to different environments. (iii) Researchers as vessels of knowledge. More than in the past, today knowledge is at last perceived as valuable good to be exchanged and “consumed”. The mobility of ideas and people is one of the main factors for the transfer of know-how and for cooperation aimed at socio-economic, infrastructure and services development in order to provide an adequate response to the problems and needs of citizens. The project consists in a bunch of activities, a combination of fun as well as science education programs that should likely reach a range of various categories, from kids, teen-agers, adults to elderly, from n