BEYOND NOW
As Berlin Science Week marks its 10th anniversary, we look not back, but forward. We ask how science can help us break through the escalating urgencies of the present and open new perspectives for the future.
The world as we knew it has come undone. What once felt unshakable is now falling apart and what lies ahead remains undefined. Amidst growing uncertainty, the daily news cycle grips our attention. Unable to look beyond the next emergency, we become caught in the immediate. Fixated on what is breaking down, urgency overwhelms us. It narrows our imagination, until even the present becomes difficult to make sense of.
From the earliest glimpses of modern science to the revolutionary discoveries of quantum mechanics, science has always challenged us to see the world differently and to imagine what lies beyond. In a time of rapid transformation, we turn to science for guidance and inspiration. Science thrives in uncertainty and ventures beyond the edges of what we know, not driven by fear, but by curiosity. It invites us to question assumptions, expand possibilities, explore new paths forward, and create space for new ways of thinking, living, and acting.
As Berlin Science Week marks a decade of dialogue and discovery, we reaffirm our commitment to the transformative power of science as a shared effort to imagine and create better futures. BEYOND NOW is a space for collective visioning: not as escapism, but as a form of grounded optimism. A belief in science as a force for positive transformation. This year’s festival theme invites us to shift focus. From what is breaking down to what could be built up. From limitations to potential.
For the Berlin Science Week 2025 programme, we welcome bold ideas, critical perspectives, and innovative formats that examine science and society in a moment of fundamental change. We ask: What lies BEYOND NOW, and who gets to define it? How can science become a tool for shared agency and new alliances? What futures might unfold when disciplines, cultures, and communities connect in new ways?
Join us as we question, imagine, and shape what is possible BEYOND NOW, together.
