The Falling Walls Science Summit took place from 7 to 9 November in Berlin, Germany, marking its 15th edition. Falling Walls is a leading international, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral forum for science discovery and scientific dialogue among leading scientists and society worldwide. The annual event serves as a catalyst for innovation, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, and promoting breakthrough thinking.

Frontiers and the Frontiers Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Falling Walls Foundation, organized two complementary sessions around the climate crisis and planetary boundary science, respectively

International climate change and human rights lawyer, Tessa Khan, and policy advisor, Brook Dambacher, are calling for a rapid and just transition away from oil, gas and coal.

To foster the discussion on AI and academic, Frontiers Policy Labs and Frontiers’ publishing development department organized a live multidisciplinary panel session in October. The event featured distinguished academics from various fields of research, who are recognized for their knowledge and implementation of AI systems in their respective areas. Mathieu Denis, head of the Centre for Science Futures at the International Science Council, moderated the discussion.

In June, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Frontiers unveiled the eagerly awaited Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023 report, marking its 11th edition. This annual report, created in collaboration with Frontiers, spotlights revolutionary technologies poised to make a positive global impact. Read by business leaders, innovators, and policymakers, it has historically predicted game-changers like CRISPR and mRNA. Since its June release, the report has attracted substantial attention, with 750+ citations in global media, 50,000 online views, and 20,000 downloads. In September, WEF and Frontiers hosted a dynamic panel discussion led by Dr. Fred Fenter, delving into key insights on these technologies' implications, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI), spanning policy, governance, and societal influence. Experts shed light on the opportunities and challenges these technologies present.

The large language model (LLM) tools we see today are essentially using a form of advanced autocompletion based on massive input, which is potentially itself of questionable validity. The infamous ‘hallucinations’ we see being produced are at least in part a result of poor inputs as well as of a lack of validated conceptual models to constrain the LLM’s algorithms and output. Attempts to regulate these tools, and the concomitant hype, may only play into the commercial interests of their creators.

The ‘blind’ use of computational models to analyze anything (data or information), without the proper underpinning of conceptual modelling (data and algorithms), is dangerous and leads to all kinds of meaningless extrapolations, including the famous ‘hallucinations’ of LLM outputs.

There is an essential distinction that needs to be made between science and science systems. It may seem semantic, but it is not. When we conflate these words, we risk undermining the place of science. We live in a world where trust in science appears less certain, where science denial has become an ideological badge, where science is undermined by disinformation. Its position relative to other knowledge systems can be questioned and debated.

This article is a response from a developing country researcher. It supports the current advancement and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) but seeks cautionary measures before it is too late.

The human rights case can be made for Open Science – this has been made clear by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment No. 25 on science and economic, social, and cultural rights. In this this much-awaited interpretation of the so-called right to science under Art. 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Committee made clear that Open Science forms part of the right to science in the digital era. Released during the Covid-19 pandemic, the timing could not have been better, for the pandemic not only illustrated in unprecedented ways the importance of science in today’s world, but also the advantages of open research practices in speeding up scientific discovery. Yet, does this legal development mean that access to scientific data and content can now be enforced before courts via the right to science? A closer look reveals that important hurdles in claiming Open Science via the right to science remain. In this short contribution, our aim is to highlight some selected challenges of implementing and adjudicating open research practices via the right to science.  

The analysis presented here highlights following Schumpeter’s insights, the need for an open industrial transformation approach less based on old, national industrial policy notions but adopting a new vision on the role of place-based industrial innovation in strengthening Europe’s long-term resilience to political, economic and technological change.

One can only hope that the war imposed by Russia on Ukraine will be brought to an end swiftly, that reconstruction of Ukraine as a sovereign state moves forward unimpeded, and that Russia, with its population of 140 million, will make earnest attempts to rectify its pariah status and re-join the rules-based international community.

When or if this will happen is not clear, but the EU should nonetheless be well prepared for the eventuality. This is true for all policy domains, but in this note we will focus upon the science and technology programmes of the EU and make some suggestions on how to use the instruments of science diplomacy for rebuilding the Ukrainian science system and reintegrating Russian scientists in the world science system, including the support of renewed scientific cooperation between Russia and Ukraine.

Peggy Rodgers Kalas, environmental lawyer and ocean policy advisor, discusses the recently finalized High Seas Treaty to protect marine life in international waters – and what is required to implement it.

Aleksandra Posarac, former World Bank economist, discusses the slow adoption of the WHO concept of 'human functioning' into medical care and how this could be overcome through its inclusion into disability assessment.  

Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are strategic assets for any society. They require global regulation and an International Data and AI agency. We would like to instigate a series of responses from a broad range of stakeholders to this global challenge

We face global, existential threats. From health emergencies to climate change, we see and feel them now. These threats can be managed and reversed. But that will require political will, global collaboration, and scientific breakthroughs at a scale not yet seen. Three experts shine a light on the missing links between science and international diplomacy. They ask how we can grow consensus when public trust in science and politics is fragile. And they make the case for science diplomacy.

The world faces some stark, geopolitical challenges. To tackle them we will need to draw on new, multilateral systems of cooperation and collaboration. A fundamental redesign of these multilateral systems is overdue – one that prioritizes the protection of the planet, together with humanity’s very survival. To succeed, any such redesign must optimize our ability to share, understand and apply scientific insight and evidence. The application of that scientific insight and evidence is the starting point for science diplomacy.

Prof Rees Kassen, evolutionary biologist at the University of Ottawa and working at the interface between science, society, and policy, considers how evolutionary medicine can overcome a conservative research ecosystem – and so enter into standard healthcare practices and policy development. 

Prof Julian Kinderlerer of the University of Cape Town explores ethical and legal issues around the use of brain organoids that may develop cognitive properties, such as human dignity and rights of both donors and organoids.