15 September 2022. Warsaw University of Technology will host the Falling Walls final. During the event, 20 PhD students, young academics and innovators from all over Poland, including foreigners, will present an idea in 3 minutes to solve a problem in science, education, society.
The winner of the Falling Walls Lab will be awarded a trip to Berlin and a chance to win the title of ‘Breakthrough Winner of the Year’ in the ‘Emerging Talents’ category. Winning also means attending the international Science Summit conference, which will take place on 7-9 November 2022, as well as in the preceding workshops and meetings organised specifically for the winners from all countries.
Globally, the event is coordinated by the Berlin-based Falling Walls Foundation, which was founded in 2009 on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Approximately 1,000 people from 75 countries have participated in the Falling Walls Lab competition to date. Among them were only six Poles, including 1 woman.
“Our goal is to increase this number and thus promote the idea of three-minute speeches, which are already a standard in the international academic community”, says Natalia Osica, initiator of the competition and founder of ‘pro science’, a company that specialises in building the visibility of science and the transfer of knowledge from universities to the socio-economic environment.
Every November, students, PhD students, scientists, start-up founders and innovators from all over the world talk about their ideas for breaking down walls. Beforehand, national qualifiers are organised in more than 70 countries. At the same time, the Falling Walls Lab competition itself is just part of the three-day Falling Walls Science Summit.
“I am delighted that so many organisations have become involved in the competition, including the German Embassy, which is funding the winner’s trip to Berlin, and the National Centre for Research and Development and PKN ORLEN, who are keen to find innovative ideas and invest in the science sector”, adds Osica.
Adrian Andrzejewski