Science year 2022 – The Year of Dialogue
13th January 2022 — Science is everywhere. Countless new findings in recent years have had a lasting impact on society, and yet many questions remain unanswered. How can electromobility be made efficient and widespread? How do we deal with artificial intelligence and autonomous machines? How do we meet the challenges of climate change? And how can we sustainably feed almost eight billion people? Given this wealth of topics, the Year of Science 2022, which is now starting, will not focus on a particular scientific topic, as is usually the case, but will instead open itself up to everything that interests society. Under the motto "In demand!", citizens can formulate concrete questions that will be taken up by researchers and processed into research questions in a committee with citizen participation. The idea is to form a pool of new ideas as a stimulus and impulse for politics and science. The goal is a dialogue at eye level, in which the concerns and visions of the public may sometimes even influence future science funding.
Shaping science together
The heart of the Year of Science 2022 is the so-called Ideas Run, which starts on the 14th January. All questions asked from that day until the 15th April will be included in the Ideas Run. Afterwards, the collected questions will be discussed, bundled and further processed in a committee of scientists and randomly selected citizens. Finally, a result paper providing important impulses for future research and possible research projects is to be produced that will be handed over to politics and science in autumn 2022 and will.
But questions can also be submitted after the 15th April. All of the queries from the public will then be taken up and discussed in a variety of formats. In addition, national, local and regional formats for participation and research will be offered throughout the year, in which the local science institutions will specifically seek dialogue with people throughout the country. In addition, the MS Wissenschaft will once again go on a nationwide tour as a floating exhibition ship. The "forscher-Magazin" for eight to twelve-year-olds will also be published again. The framework in which the events can take place will depend on the current pandemic situation.
For us, the task this year is particularly exciting because we will be guided by people's questions instead of prescribing a theme as usual. We want to open up different spaces for dialogue and create opportunities for better understanding between science and the public.
DLR-PT is an important partner
Since 2000, the Year of Science has been organised by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the initiative "Science in Dialogue". With its Science Communication Competence Centre, DLR-PT coordinates and organises the numerous partners who set their own accents with their projects, events and initiatives, supervises the funded projects and manages the entire campaign. "For us, the task this year is particularly exciting because we are guided by the people's questions instead of prescribing a theme as usual," explains Stefanie Dorsch from the DLR-PT's Science Communication Office. "We want to open up a wide variety of spaces for dialogue and create opportunities for better understanding between science and the public." Research facilities and other institutions can register at redaktionsbuero@wissenschaftsjahr.de – the larger the network, the better the questions from the public can be answered.
Research, education and innovation improve our lives! Presenting sound subject matter knowledge in an understandable way and talking to society about it is part of our mission. But how does the content reach its target groups? And with which formats can this best be achieved? Questions like these are answered by our highly specialised communication teams.Further information
