CIRCLES City Tours

The CIRCLES partners are very excited to present the City Tours to you! In 2021-2022 citizens in the 5 European cities of Paris, Bologna, Mazara del Vallo, Helsinki and Brussels will have the possibility to meet us in person and learn more about the microbiome.

We want to

  • raise awareness on the microbiome in the food system
  • share the potential of microbes in helping us shape a future-proof food system
  • give people the opportunity to sample the environmental microbiome of their surroundings
  • discuss it with a researcher

In 2021, 2 city tours took place in Italy, helping citizens to explore the marine microbiome:

  • CIRCLES coordinator UNIBO organised the “Marine Microbiome Day” that took place on June 2021 at the starting event of the Sailing for Blue Life Festival at the Nautical Club in Rimini. Activities included a sailing trip during which CIRCLES scientists and kids with their families performed a seawater sampling. Read more about the initiative here in English and Italian.
  • After its kick start in Rimini, the initiative Sailing for Blue Life made a second stop in the Adriatic Sea. A research team from CNR-IRBIM took part in the 2-days event Ancona Blue Life Fest, to promote the preservation of the marine ecosystems. As in Rimini, sampling campaigns on board of a sailing boat and a catamaran were organised to give people insights into the activities of marine scientists and unveil the secrets of microbial life in the sea. Read more here.

In 2022, citizens could explore the microbiome that surrounds them during the European Researchers Night in Bologna on 30th of September:

  • Together with UNIBO, they could explore their house floor microbiome. Citizens got a kit to collect samples of the microbiome of their house floors, contributing to the first city map of the house-floor microbiomes in Bologna. The results can help them understand how microbial life is connected with our health and wellbeing, the impact of nearby parks or pets, or the movement of microbes within the city.
  • They also got the opportunity to explore their skin microbiome.  The researchers of the CIRCLES project prepared microbiological plates and each person could lay their hand on the plate for a couple of seconds in order to inoculate the plate with the microbes naturally present on their skin, the skin microbiome. Read more here.

In 2023, citizens could discover the invisible life that surrounding them during the XII Soil Science Days 2023 on 10th and 11th of January, in the House of Science & Letters of Helsinki:

  • The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) organized the activity: the citizens of Helsinki got a kit to collect samples of the microbiome of their house floors, understanding their impact on our daily life.
  • They also got information about of the importance of the soil microbiome, impacting entire food chains. Read more here.

Info on the exact time and place of upcoming city tours will be published here soon. Stay tuned!