Most of the events will be digital and can easily be accessed through this website. This counts especially for the Falling Walls Remote events (100% digital).

In addition there are selected events that will take place in Berlin for a limited number of participants, which also stream their session live. These are referred to as hybrid and can either be visited onsite or digitally through this website.

Last but not least, there are a handful of physical events that are held in a location in Berlin only for a limited number of participants.

You can find the complete programme here. Please check whether an extra sign-up by our partner organizations is required. You will find all details in the respective event description.

Thanks to the support of our partners, registration for the World Science Summit is completely free of charge, as are most of the events. Please check in our programme, if a ticket price for physical events is required.

For the first time, the events of Berlin Science Week and the Falling Walls programmes will meet on a digital platform and are accessible for interested audiences around the globe. We adopted the joint term ‘World Science Summit’ to express the aim of keeping this new global accessibility for the future, and also to show appreciation for new partners across the globe.

Look forward to over 200 live panel discussions, virtual meetings, workshops, exhibitions or performances! Most of the events will be held digitally and for free. A handful of events, with all measures related to hygiene and distancing in place, will be held physically in Berlin.

Berlin Science Week is a 10-day international festival between 1 — 10 November bringing together the world’s most innovative scientific organisations to celebrate science, to connect and to engage the local and international science community with the public.

As a hub for interdisciplinary dialogue, our mission is to enable and strengthen an international and diverse scientific network. Berlin Science Week gives greater visibility to science, research and innovation. It is the global platform for dialogue and collaboration between science and society that inspires a deeper understanding of our world.

For the first time, the events of Berlin Science Week and the Falling Walls programme will meet on this digital platform and are accessible for interested audiences around the globe. We adopted the joint term ‘World Science Summit’ to express the aim of keeping this new global accessibility for the future, and also to show appreciation for new partners across the globe.

As a vessel for the world-changing spirit of 1989 in and beyond Berlin, Falling Walls is on a relentless pursuit to find out: Which are the next walls to fall?

Since its first annual meeting on 9 November 2009, the Falling Walls conference has become a unique global platform connecting science, business and society through a shared commitment to create breakthrough solutions to challenges across borders and disciplines.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, an in-person international conference this November is no longer feasible. In the interest of continuing our shared dedication to science communication across borders and disciplines, we have decided to go digital in 2020.

This year, Falling Walls will shift from a series of meetings and one conference with a limited number of speakers and topics to a global showcase that gathers, discusses, and celebrates a much broader set of breakthroughs in science and society – the Falling Walls Breakthroughs of the Year.

For the first time, the Falling Walls programme and the events of Berlin Science Week will meet on this digital platform and are accessible for interested audiences around the globe. We adopted the joint term ‘World Science Summit’ to express the aim of keeping this new global accessibility for the future, and also to show appreciation for new partners across the globe.

This year, we are looking for the Falling Walls Breakthroughs of the Year – one breakthrough in each of the 10 categories (Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Social Sciences and the Humanities, Science in the Arts, Digital Education, Science and Innovation Management, Emerging Talents, Science Start-ups, Science Engagement Initiatives).

Falling Walls Breakthroughs start their journey as nominees. They get to the next stage as finalists, and then will be one of 10 winners of their category. 10 distinguished juries (one for each category) will identify the 10 winners and later the Breakthrough of the Year in their category. All winners will be presented in their respective Winners Session in the days just before the grand finale (4 – 8 November 2020). At the Falling Walls Grand Finale (9 November 2020), all 10 Breakthroughs will be presented and honored.

Falling Walls Breakthroughs represent significant advances, developments, achievements or an increase in (scientific) knowledge that remove barriers to progress in the nominees’ respective fields. Breakthroughs can be ground-breaking, innovative ideas or represent a significant paradigm shift. They promise to have an impact on society world-wide, and contribute towards solving one of our biggest challenges, e.g. addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

At the Falling Walls Grand Finale (9 November 2020), all 10 Breakthroughs of the Year (one in each topic) will be presented and honored.

The first Falling Walls Conference was held on 9 November 2009, the 20th anniversary of the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall. Ever since, the Falling Walls Conference is deeply tied to the 9 November, answering the core question: “Which are the next walls to fall in science and society?“

Daily Highlights happen every day from 1–10 November, 1pm. In 15 minutes, they summarize the most important sessions from the morning and give an outlook to the rest of the day.

At the World Science Summit, we gather different types of speakers:

Winners/Breakthroughs
Winners and Breakthroughs are this year’s Falling Walls Remote speakers. They started their journey together with around 1000 nominees, continued as finalists and are now amongst the best 100 winners / the best 10 Breakthroughs.

Falling Walls Breakthroughs represent significant advances, developments, achievements or an increase in (scientific) knowledge that remove barriers to progress in the nominees’ respective fields. Breakthroughs can be ground-breaking, innovative ideas or represent a significant paradigm shift. They promise to have an impact on society world-wide, and contribute towards solving one of our biggest challenges, e.g. addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

partner organisations
Spread across the whole calendar, more than 100 partner organisations are hosting sessions: from panel discussions to workshops, from science slams to symposiums. All partner organisations are independent in designing their event.

Circle Table speakers
Throughout the programme, X Circle Tables will be freely accessible. Under the ownership of distinguished hosts, these round-tables provide an opportunity to exchange science-based ideas on actions for tomorrow, including lessons learned from the current global crisis. Panellists include international leaders of diverse backgrounds, including presidents of universities and research organisations, CEOs and CTOs from science- and technology-driven corporations, senior government officials, outstanding researchers and entrepreneurs.

Falling Walls Finalists refer to the quest for the Falling Walls Breakthroughs of the Year.

In 10 topics (Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Social Sciences and the Humanities, Science in the Arts, Digital Education, Science and Innovation Management, Emerging Talents, Science Start-ups, Science Engagement Initiatives), institutions around the world handed in their nominations for their Breakthrough of the Year.

If a nomination makes it to the next round, the nominee is becoming a finalist. All finalists are asked to send in a short video of no longer than 5 minutes in which they explain their breakthrough work. You can see all finalist videos on our library.

10 distinguished juries (one for each category) will identify the 10 winners and later the Breakthrough of the Year in their topic. All winners will be presented in their respective Winners Session in the days just before the grand finale (4 – 8 November 2020). At the Falling Walls Grand Finale (9 November 2020), all 10 Breakthroughs will be presented and honored.

Since 2009, Falling Walls has been hosting live events in the course of Falling Walls Berlin. The number of participants has grown each year and we grew fond of the experience to meet, get in touch and occasionally physically bump into an inspiring stranger from a different country in special, intimate and also generally sold out venues.

We cannot imagine to create a similarly enjoyable experience while at the same time keeping all of our guests safe from a potential infection with the still terribly prevalent Corona-Virus.

Being a determined advocate for science-based decisionmaking, we at the Falling Walls Foundation feel obliged to act as rolemodels for event hosts. As such, we cannot lead anyone in temptation to give up on the directives of social distancing which are, for the time being, the most effective measures against the further spreading of the virus we know. All this being said, hosting personal gatherings of the scale we need to do our work well are sadly not an option in 2020.

Our 2020 programme “Falling Walls Remote” is no substitute. Actually, it is more: It expands our worldwide quest for the Breakthroughs of the year in time and space. The digital format will not be sold out, we’ve got space! And with the wonderful support by our partners, we can even offer free registration for all participants as well as coaching and counseling of the contestants. In Falling Walls Remote, too, it is our goal to empower breakthrough thinking across the globe, to tackle our world’s most pressing problems.

No, we haven’t changed any tickets that were pre-ordered for Falling Walls Berlin due to the format changes towards Falling Walls Remote 2020 (and we won’t).

The decision to pause hosting personal gatherings this year due to the COVID-19-crisis was made in July 2020, pre-registration for Falling Walls Berlin 2020 had started in November 2019 already.

All pre-registrations for paid Falling Walls Berlin-tickets are insubstancial and no longer valid. Naturally, there are no open accounts on your part. If you ordered a paid ticket earlier, you should have received a personal message by our guest manager by now. In case you haven’t, please contact Claudia Brüninghaus with any further questions.

Also, we highly recommend you register for Falling Walls Remote on our website – for free this time.

Good idea to attend as a group, thank you!

We do ask for one registration per person as we want to encourage everyone to surf around individually within the Q&A- and networking sessions. The individual e-mail-adresses help us to send everyone the right schedule and reminders. Also, we’re curious about how many people are following us and from where, which is why we’ll ask everybody’s name.

You can, of course, have one of you register several persons in sequence, re-visiting the same page. All you’d need to do so are the name and e-mail-adress of each group member.

Join our mission if you are a national or international university, a research institution, a science-based start-up or an innovative business, a science engagement & science policy initiative, or an interdisciplinary project related to science. For more information, please contact info@berlinscienceweek.com

GET IN TOUCH

General questions:
office@falling-walls.com

Press questions:
press@berlinscienceweek.com
press@falling-walls.com

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What we believe in:

Inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, we believe that free speech, curiosity, cooperation, persistence and imaginativeness can overcome any barrier. Therefore, the purpose of all our actions – physical and digital gatherings  – is to celebrate freedom, commemorate persecution, and share knowledge from all over the world.

We kindly ask you for your help:

• to create a friendly, professional, respectful and harassment-free environment regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, ethnicity, race, national origin, age or religion.
• to respect free speech
• to find respectful ways to voice criticism
• to help us stand up against violation of these values