The first step is to inform the Falling Walls Lab team (lab@falling-walls.com) about the planned date of your Falling Walls Lab so your event can be listed on our website as soon as possible. The Falling Walls Foundation does not demand any license fees, yet we ask you to secure a high standard in the selection of presenters and jury members to ensure the integrity of the competition. If this is in question, we may withdraw your permission to host a Lab.

Falling Walls Labs can be hosted by academic institutions or in cooperation with an academic institution/science academy as the main partner (e.g. the German Academic Exchange Service). Potential co-hosts can help distribute the call for applications and nominate jury members. Please seek final approval regarding all partnerships from the Falling Walls Lab team in Berlin.

Reserve a venue equipped with a video projector. 100 seats are usually sufficient for presenters, jury members, media representatives, and the audience.

Invite Bachelor’s and Master’s students, PhD candidates, post-docs, and early-career professionals (18 years or older). All disciplines are welcome. The easiest ways to distribute your call for applications are email lists, social media, your website, press releases, and posters. Usually, this requires a great deal of effort. We, therefore, recommend you start early. The goal is to have a minimum of 15 participants, well-balanced in terms of both discipline and gender.

Your jury must have a minimum of five members. It should be comprised of highly respected representatives of academia and business and must be well-balanced in terms of discipline and gender. Please appoint a jury chair. Gather all jury members for a briefing on their role and the scoring system. After the pitches, the jury convenes to choose the winner. If the jury fails to agree, the jury chair moderates the discussion until a final decision has been made. The evaluation criteria are: (a) the breakthrough factor (How innovative is the proposed idea?), (b) relevance and impact (How relevant is the idea for the discipline and beyond?) and (c) structure and performance (How convincing was the pitch?).

To facilitate your efforts, all applications for your Falling Walls Lab will be submitted via our website. We collect the applications and update you regularly. Once we have sent you the final list of applications, a committee at your institution selects the presenters for your Falling Walls Lab.

Every presenter has exactly three minutes for their pitch – this is what makes a Falling Walls Lab a fast-paced and exciting event. Every presenter must prepare three PowerPoint slides: one introductory slide and two content slides. To guarantee fair and efficient time management, we suggest appointing a moderator who intervenes in case a presenter exceeds their time limit. The event should be open to the public.

The winner of your Falling Walls Lab automatically qualifies for the global finale in Berlin and will get to take part in an exclusive extended programme.

Our aim is to keep costs as low as possible without compromising the quality of the event. We welcome you to acquire suitable sponsors for your event. Before you approach a prospective partner, you must seek final approval from the Falling Walls Foundation. We do not cover any expenses you might have.

Falling Walls Lab is fun! It brings together bright minds with groundbreaking ideas that spark discourse and have great potential to impact our future. So please, have fun!