Where do your eyes go first when you look at health information? Can data help us understand how people react to health messages? And can a map provide enough evidence to uncover an environmental story? These were some of the questions MagIC – Information Management Research Center brought to the European Researchers’ Night 2026, inviting visitors to experience how Data Science can help us understand both the world around us and the way people respond to information.

On 25 September, MagIC participated for the first time in the European Researchers’ Night, joining hundreds of researchers at the National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC) in Lisbon.

Through two interactive activities, researchers from NOVA IMS invited visitors to move beyond simply hearing about science and instead experiment with some of the data, technologies and questions that are part of the research process.

Can you discover the story hidden in a map?

A map can show us where something happened. But can it also help us understand what happened, why it matters and what story the evidence supports?

In “Discover how maps tell stories”, visitors stepped into the role of investigative journalists. Presented with maps, satellite imagery, environmental data, graphs and photographs, they were challenged to examine the available evidence and uncover the environmental story hidden within it.

The activity introduced visitors to GEOJO – Geospatial Data Storytelling for Environmental Journalism, a European project promoting the use of geospatial data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Earth Observation technologies in journalism and environmental communication.

Just as in real-world investigations, however, not every piece of information was equally important. Participants had to decide which evidence was relevant, which sources helped explain what had happened and which information could distract them from the central story.

The challenge opened a conversation about data literacy and critical thinking: having access to more data does not automatically lead to better knowledge. Data must be questioned, interpreted and placed in context before it can become meaningful evidence.

In this way, visitors could experience how geospatial technologies can help journalists and researchers make environmental change visible and transform complex datasets into rigorous, evidence-based stories.

"What do our emotions reveal about the way we process health information?

The second activity turned the focus from environmental data to human behaviour.

Visitors were invited to explore how researchers can study people's responses to health information using tools from Data Science and Behavioural Science.

One of the main attractions was a FaceReader experiment. While participants viewed a video about health communication, the technology estimated their emotions in real time, allowing them to see how their emotional responses changed as the information was presented to them.

Which moments triggered stronger emotional responses? How did their reactions change throughout the video? Did different parts of the health information video elicit different emotional responses?

The experiment offered a hands-on demonstration that, sometimes, our faces can reveal more about our emotional responses than our words or attitudes.

FaceReader technology provides researchers with one way of studying these emotional responses. Combined with other behavioural and analytical methods, such evidence can help researchers investigate how people react to different types of health messages and how health information can be designed to be clearer, more accessible and more effective.

These are questions being explored at NOVA IMS through projects such as SMARTHEALTH and CHOICE.

SMARTHEALTH, developed in partnership with the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health, uses Artificial Intelligence, text mining and Data Science to analyse digital interactions and health-related public discourse, helping researchers understand dimensions such as health literacy, psychological states, emotions and emerging concerns. CHOICE applies behavioural insights and data-driven approaches to health literacy and cancer prevention, including the analysis of public sentiment and the development of tools to support more informed health decisions.

Together, these approaches illustrate how different forms of data can tell us different things about human behaviour: facial expression analysis can provide insights into people's emotional responses, while behavioural and emotional analysis can help researchers investigate how people interpret and react to health information.

Turning research into an experience

For MagIC, its first participation in the European Researchers’ Night was an opportunity to show that Data Science is not only about algorithms and large datasets. It is also about asking questions. What does this map tell us? Which evidence should we trust? Where does our attention go? How do people react to information? And how can we use that knowledge to communicate more effectively?

By transforming these research questions into hands-on challenges, MagIC researchers invited visitors not simply to learn about scientific results, but to experience part of the scientific process themselves: observing, questioning, interpreting evidence and discussing what the data can — and cannot — tell us.

The European Researchers’ Night is a European science communication initiative that has brought researchers and citizens together since 2005. The 2026 Lisbon edition at MUHNAC and the Botanical Garden brought together around 700 researchers and 120 activities, giving visitors of all ages the opportunity to encounter science through experiments, demonstrations, games and conversations.