Falling Walls Falling Walls Science Summit 2022

Mark Ferguson has been instrumental in defining and promoting the EIC in Europe.

Ready to take a deep dive into the Top 10 breakthroughs in the Physical Sciences category? This Winners Session will take you from the bottom of the ocean all the way to outer space to explore the most remote living environments. Learn about new ways to observe climate-related changes on…

Sidewalk Science Center is hosted 3-5 days a week in public spaces, such as parks, playgrounds and even outdoor malls, allowing participants the opportunity to engage with a variety of hands-on science experiments and team-building exercises meant to encourage questions and strengthen observational skills. When our telescope is out, participants…

Nominated by: Linköping University Presented by: Dr. Johannes Bintinger

How fast-charging batteries work and why they matter In order for the European Union to achieve its goal of zero net emissions by 2050, the speed at which devices can be charged needs to increase significantly. Clare Grey, Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University, sees her work as an important…

The Travelling Telescope is a social enterprise dedicated to promoting science, technology and sustainability through astronomy and space endeavours. We run a biweekly quiz for anyone across the planet to join in, test their astronomy knowledge, test their music knowledge, and learn a little from our esteemed guests who give…

The nominating institution SCHOTT on the breakthrough: SCHOTT is the first company to mass produce ultra thin alumino-silicate glass, as required for foldable mobile display covers. Thickness below 0.1 mm allows for bending radii below 2 mm, after a so-called chemical toughening process. The glass is produced directly in the…

Ana Montalban-Arques’ novel therapeutic approach applies bacteria as a stand-alone therapy for colon cancer, a therapeutic approach that shows striking efficacy of bacteria as monotherapy.

SUN-to-LIQUID uses a solar thermochemical cycle to convert sunlight, water and CO2 into renewable kerosene. The key components of the process are a highly concentrating solar field, a receiver-reactor and a gas to liquid unit. By direct conversion of thermal energy into chemical energy the process has a high theoretical…

We offer to place wind generators near the railways for accumulation and supplying of non-traction consumers.   Tags: Energy, Engineering, Renewable energies.

Nominated by: National Institute of Chemistry Slovenia Presented by: Dr. Matija Gatalo

The nominating institution Charité on the breakthrough: The planned platform presents career paths for researchers in different sectors as equals. It inspires them to think out of the box and offers guidance in career transitions through digital formats (employer portraits, peer mentoring, expert talks, workshops) as well as individual career…

Our lean ecosystem generation model, emphasises maximising the number of innovation ideas explored and researchers commercially upskilled while minimising costs to support this activity across a city or economic region. We believe that by raising the level commercial awareness and connecting generations of researchers to existing local innovation activity, this…

Quantum theory is one of the two revolutions in modern day physics. However, its underlying root is still very much a mystery. Here we revisit the Stern-Gerlach Experiment, a paradigm of quantum theory, and by using modern technology have managed to shed new light on this fundamental spin quantization experiment.…

Rocket-science without rocket-science: As a spin-off from the German Aerospace Center we develop and vend space science-based experiments and workshops to schools and universities. Our story-telling approach starts with catchy questions (“Who wants holidays on Mars?”, “How will we save our Planet”) and encourages pupils to participate in the course.…

How Economic Growth in India Shows the Way for Other Developing Countries Jagdish Bhagwati’s influence on the international economic debate is huge. He is known both for his directing and advisory roles in organisations such as GATT, UN, WTO, and for his provocative publications which include the 2004 worldwide success…

Whilst conventional recycling as we know it – converting waste materials into new materials – brings many environmental benefits, it is still severely limited when it comes to more complex products such as electronic devices. Our increasing and insatiable dependence on these devices, however, makes it even more urgent to…

Labor reflects upon our changing understanding of what we are. Microbes in and on the human body outnumber human cells and complicate any simplistic sense of (an indivisible) self. The smell of the perspiring body is not just a human scent, unless we are willing to redefine what we mean…

Sohyun Park is proposing a campaign which encourages people to watch and read contents that they dislike, to express their honest opinion about them and to share it with other people. Tag: Social Cohesion.

PRESENTED BY Pierre Le Blainvaux NOMINATED BY Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Tags: Ecological Chemistry, Green Chemistry, Biosorption, Biomass, Eco-catalysts

How Gravitational Waves Let Us Hear the Sound of Space For centuries we’ve only possessed one sense to explore space: our eyes. Everything we know about the universe is based on things we observed gazing at the stars. Using powerful telescopes and ever-more sophisticated technology, we have managed to map…

Dilip Menon was talking about creating a paracolonial framework that goes beyond the nation state, and that looks at the ways in which humanity’s destiny is framed by shared heritages through oceanic connections. In a time of global warming, the rising waters, and vast human migrations, we need a politics…

The nominating institution University of Ulm on the breakthrough: NMR is of major importance in biology, chemistry, medicine, and physics, as it gives access to molecular structure and revolutionised medical imaging. But the poor sensitivity of current NMR technology prevents its application to single proteins or the imaging of cellular…

Voice of nature art installation uses a living tree to uncover the impact of climate change in real time. In collaboration with the scientific partner Stefano Mancuso of the LIVN lab of the University of Florance and the sensor department of the Technical University of delft Artist Thijs Biersteker Developed…

Only 5-10% of blind people have access to education as their education is very expensive and only limited resources are available. The Digital Braille Display System (Braille tablet) can replicate any text, graphical diagram or map to standard Braille, and provides unlimited content available (online & offline) at low cost.

A wearable, connected device that measures muscle activation data and outputs actionable data for personalized, diagnostic decision-making.

Carried out over 10 years by artist-economist duo Chow and Lin, The Poverty Line visually documents the type and amount of food a person living by the poverty line can buy per day in different case-study Countries. The photographic study is based on data analysis and socio-economic research on lowest-income…

In this Falling Walls Breakthrough Conversation with Londa Schiebinger, digital participants had the chance to discuss and ask questions. The interview series provided an intense personal atmosphere, in which high-level guests, speakers and panelists of the Falling Walls Science Summit 2021 focused on their individual research, career paths and experiences.…

My project is to transform the grass from the malagasy savanna in Fianarantsoa to Bio briquettes. Tags: Climate change, Environment & Nature, Renewable energies.

To use a system that can be very well controlled in the lab (cold atoms) to emulate the dynamics of another system (molecules) which are difficult to predict. Despite of being at the basis of our lives, most problems dealing with molecules are hard to solve even with supercomputers. In…

At Kvark Science Show, science meets entertainment and collaborates to create an event never before seen in Europe. The main goal of the show was branding knowledge as a superpower thus making STEAM more interesting and intriguing to students, children, and adults. During the show, two performers displayed and explained…

PRESENTED BY Robert Brüll NOMINATED BY RWTH Aachen University Tags: Composites, Glass Fibre

Experts in quantum logic spectroscopy and highly charged ions have teamed up for the first high resolution coherent laser spectroscopy of a highly charged ion. This breakthrough, which has pushed resolution by eight orders of magnitude, enables proposed sensitive tests of fundamental constants and interactions, novel dark matter searches, as…

The nominating institution GEOMAR on the breakthrough: Dr. Micallef’s work highlights the important role that offshore groundwater systems play for the geological and biological processes at the seafloor. The work in MARCAN quickly documented the abundance of freshwater below the seafloor. Recent estimates suggest that there is as much as…

Dr. Sabrina Badir from ETH Zurich was the jury’s choice and winner of the Falling Walls Lab 2015 with the development of a reliable and easy-to-use device that allows the risk of premature birth to be recognized in time so that appropriate treatments can be started promptly.

Scientists drown in a flood of pseudo-digitalized PDF articles and research is seriously flawed: results cannot be reproduced, peer-review is defunct, there is increasing redundancy. Global challenges (e.g. COVID19 pandemic) require interdisciplinarity and integrating bits and pieces from different disciplines. The ORKG connects various ideas, approaches, methods and results in…

Algorithmic prediction is disrupting how society manages an uncertain future. Whereas traditional forecasts distribute risk over a population, algorithmic systems predict the riskiness of particular individuals. I explore this transformation in the fields of insurance, medicine, and policing. Giving up the principle of shared uncertainty may come with a heavy…

The two most common mental health issues, depression and anxiety, are also the leading cause of disability globally. The economic impact and societal ramifications are increasingly being recognised and a cultural and policy shift in the way mental health disorders are perceived and tackled is already underway. However, much remains…

SOFA proposes a more efficient system to distribute research funding than the present grant proposal review process. All researchers periodically receive an equal and unconditional base amount of funding, but they have to donate a fraction of everything they receive to other researchers of their choice. As such, funding circulates…

Nominated by: BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt Presented by: Dr. Tobias Engelmeier

Our curriculum and science engagements make learning science a fun, hands-on and relevant experience for 3 – 14 year olds. These are offered all-year round through our science clubs running both inside and outside schools. We also train young scientists to be great science communicators through our fellowship program. During…

In cooperation with the VolkswagenStiftung and WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Falling Walls was hosting this unique format to connect researchers in the social sciences and humanities from all over the world. The symposium gathered the 2021 Winners in the Social Sciences and Humanities category as well as partners from…

Fafali likes to build and experiment, however Fafali does not have resources. Juvian Mobile Maker Spaces are collections of boxes that contain tools, equipment and materials that will aid Fafali in Practical Education and Experimentation. The contents of these boxes are low cost and easily accessible in the supermarket. Tags:…

I plead for a design turn within the social sciences, in order to foster the renewal of empirical methods from an analytical towards a co-productive synthetic approach of knowledge production.

How Deep Learning Can Give Birth to General Artificial Intelligence From chessbots to chatbots and from search algorithms to industrial assembly machines – humanity has arrived at the age of machine intelligence; or at least machine work, if we take seriously a definition of intelligence as “the abilities to learn…

The nominating institute Geomar on the breakthrough: The independent evolution of pregnancy in most vertebrate groups required drastic morphological and genomic reorganisation. Roth’s project focuses on adaptation in male pregnancy evolution in pipefishes and seahorses, evolving on a gradient from external fertilisation to full pregnancy. Only this genus allows the…

The nominating institution Schott on the project: Hundreds of thousands worldwide suffer from retinal degenerative diseases that result in vision loss. Hevonkorpi’s newly developed NR600 implant activates damaged retinal cells to restore vision with a minimally invasive, high-performance device. Tags: Med-Tech

PRESENTED BY Jacob Bossaer NOMINATED BY BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt Tags: Drinking Water, Global Water Challenges, Water Scarcity, Water Crisis, Water 4 All, Sustainability, Water Management

The digital coach goes far beyond traditional reactive ‘FAQ-bot’ approaches by pro-actively engaging with students and starting conversations to ensure they settle into university life with the best support possible; making personalised recommendations for societies to join, asking how students are feeling and nudging students towards activities that can help…