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 students and early-career professionals by providing a stage for breakthrough ideas both globally and locally. Our multifaceted formats support our participants in driving their innovations and develop their communication skills, fostering collaboration and creating a space for our impactful and sustainable community to thrive.

CONCEPT
Throughout the year, renowned academic institutions around the world organise Falling Walls Labs to showcase the quality, diversity, and passion of their region’s most innovative minds. In three minutes each, participants are given the opportunity to present their solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time to peers, a high-calibre jury of experts from academia and business, and the general public. Past presentations have ranged in topic from ‘Breaking the Wall of Fake News Detection’ to ‘Breaking the Wall of Oil Spills’. The breakthrough factor, potential impact of the presented work, and performance help the jury 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 an exclusive extended programme that includes an introductory session and networking dinner, expert workshops on a broad range of topics such as career development, entrepreneurial skills, and academic publishing, and events hosted by prestigious German research organisations such as the German Research Foundation (DFG). At the global finale, the international Lab winners compete to become the Breakthrough Winner in the Emerging Talents category of Falling Walls, taking home the title and prize money, and receiving the opportunity to pitch their work once again on the Falling Walls Breakthrough Day stage, which, throughout the day, hosts leading experts, changemakers, and luminaries.

ABOUT FALLING WALLS LAB
Falling Walls Lab is organised by the Falling Walls Foundation and generously funded by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (global finale) and Sartorius (international Labs). It is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and Springer Nature. The international network of Falling Walls Labs includes renowned academic institutions from over 60 countries. The ETH Zürich, Tohoku University, and the University of Cape Town are only a few of the universities that have recently participated in the Falling Walls Lab programme.
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.