Frontiers of Knowledge
How does science explore what we don’t know yet, and why does that matter?
In the context of In Touch, this track holds a particular kind of intimacy: the relationship between a researcher and a question that may never be answered. The doubt, the wonder, the willingness to spend years in uncertainty. That’s as personal as science gets.
Not everything worth knowing has found its application. Some of the most transformative breakthroughs in history—from quantum mechanics to CRISPR— began as bold questions whose impact no one could foresee. Fundamental research is the long game: slow, uncertain, often unglamorous, and absolutely essential.
This event track lives at the edge of what we know and asks why we pursue knowledge at all. It’s where you’ll find events about science that doesn’t fit neatly into a societal touchpoint, because its point of contact hasn’t arrived yet. It’s also a space to ask what science is, and why the freedom to explore the unknown deserves protection.
From Basic Research to Breakthrough Innovation: Wie an TU9-Universitäten Innovationen entstehen
6 November 2026 | 15:30–16:30 | HKW | DE
Years usually separate a theoretical finding from a product anyone actually uses, and there are plenty of points along the way where the path breaks off. Where does it break off in Germany? Marking twenty years of TU9, Ursula M. Staudinger, Siegfried Russwurm, Anna Christmann and others discuss why technical universities are treated as engines of innovation, and what it takes for a researcher to get a start-up off the ground.
From Basic Research to Breakthrough Innovation: Wie an TU9-Universitäten Innovationen entstehen
6 November 2026 | 15:30–16:30 | HKW | DE
Years usually separate a theoretical finding from a product anyone actually uses, and there are plenty of points along the way where the path breaks off. Where does it break off in Germany? Marking twenty years of TU9, Ursula M. Staudinger, Siegfried Russwurm, Anna Christmann and others discuss why technical universities are treated as engines of innovation, and what it takes for a researcher to get a start-up off the ground.
HIGHLIGHTS
Please note: events are displayed in the language in which they will take place.
DISCOVERY DOESN’T END HERE
Every breakthrough changes more than what we know. See how scientific knowledge shapes public life through Trust & Responsibility, or our relationship with the natural world through Planetary Matters.
