About Falling Walls Lab

Falling Walls Lab, Berlin

Falling Walls Lab is a global interdisciplinary pitch competition for students and early-career professionals.

Three minutes is all it takes! Falling Walls Lab is a world-class pitch competition and networking forum that brings together a diverse and interdisciplinary pool of talents by providing a stage for breakthrough ideas both locally and globally. 

Concept

Each year, renowned academic institutions around the world organise their own Falling Walls Labs to showcase the quality, diversity, and passion of their region’s most innovative minds. In three minutes each, participants try to convince a high-calibre jury of their solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

The breakthrough factor and potential impact of the presented work help determine the winner, who qualifies for the global finale in Berlin on 7 November and wins a ticket to attend the Falling Walls Science Summit, where they get to interact with the world’s movers and shakers of science, business, and policymaking.

During their multi-day stay in Berlin, the international Lab winners take part in a broad extended programme that includes a coaching session, expert workshops on a broad range of topics such as career development, entrepreneurial skills, and academic publishing, a tour of local academic institutions and events hosted by the Falling Walls Foundation partners, e.g. the German Research Foundation or Springer Nature.

At the global finale, the international Lab winners compete to become the Breakthrough Winner in the Emerging Talents category of Falling Walls Science Summit. They take home the title and prize money, and receive the opportunity to pitch their idea once again two days later on the Falling Walls Breakthroughs of the Year stage, with leading experts, changemakers, and luminaries, including Nobel laureates and Leibniz Prize winners.

Falling Walls Lab hosts

Falling Walls Lab is organised by the Falling Walls Foundation and is supported by the Museum für Naturkunde, Springer Nature, Sartorius, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

The international network of Falling Walls Labs includes renowned academic institutions from 100 countries. The ETH Zürich, National University of Singapore, and University of Cape Town are only a few of the universities that have recently hosted a Falling Walls Lab.
Since the beginning in 2011 more than 1300 Alumnis joined the Falling Walls networks.
 
Royal Society Te Apārangi is the independent organiser of Falling Walls Lab Aotearoa New Zealand event for participants from New Zealand and Pacific Island Forum nations. Learn about Falling Walls Lab Aotearoa New Zealand.

Falling Walls Foundation

Falling Walls is the unique global hub connecting science, business and society. We shape the future of humanity by impact-oriented ideas and discoveries, driven by our shared dedication for creating breakthroughs across borders and disciplines. As a vessel for the world-changing spirit of 1989 in and beyond Berlin, we are on a relentless pursuit to find out: Which are the next walls to fall?

The Mission

The crumbling concrete blocks of the Berlin Wall marked the dawn of a new era of freedom by breaking barriers both physical and imaginary on the night of 9 November 1989. The Falling Walls Foundation is channels this iconic image as a not-for-profit organisation based in Berlin, devoted to bringing together those who aim to tear down the next walls in science and society. Sine our first conference on the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 2009, Falling Walls has become an ever-growing network of the most ambitious and forward-thinking minds from around the globe. Our community is built on outstanding experiences of gathering, learning and the connection to a higher purpose by tackling the greatest challenges of this planet. Together we stand for the freedom of thought and scientific research, and for making ground-breaking ideas accessible to society.

The Falling Walls Foundation is a non-profit organisation in Berlin, dedicated to supporting science and the humanities. It is a unique international platform for leaders from the worlds of science, business and politics, the arts, and society. Falling Walls fosters discussion on research and innovation, and promotes the latest scientific findings among a broad audience from all parts of society.

The Falling Walls Foundation is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, the Berlin Senate as well as numerous acclaimed academic institutions, foundations, companies, and non-governmental organisations.