Labs in Skopje, Bitola, Stip and Ohrid opened their doors to everyone today. Macedonia has officially joined European Researchers' Night for the first time - the day when more than a million visitors are expected at museums, universities and institutes across 40 European countries.

Here, more than 85 free activities have been announced: experiments, demonstrations, exhibitions, science games and conversations with researchers. The programme runs through the project "CHOOSE SCIENCE", coordinated by Ss. Cyril and Methodius University together with the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU), the universities of Bitola and Stip, the National Centre for the Development of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Learning and the Macedonian Ecological Society. The money comes from the EU's Horizon Europe programme, via the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions.

At FINKI, the computer science faculty, research projects are on show, among them VEZILKA, an artificial intelligence project. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering opened its labs to school pupils, with workshops ranging from mechatronics and industrial robotics to welding and motor vehicles.

Education and Science Minister Vesna Janevska seized the moment for some numbers. "If in 2024 we inherited a science budget of 380 million denars, last year we secured 680 million, and this year we have 773 million denars," she said, adding that the state funded around 50 research projects last year.

A growing budget is good news - at least according to the figures the minister announced about her own government. But science isn't measured only in denars on a spreadsheet. It's measured in how many of the kids in those labs today will stay here to do research. One night opens the doors. Will there be a reason for them to stay open tomorrow?