image: Fred Fenter, Climate Action Future
Credit: Frontiers/ Falling Walls Foundation
Open access publisher Frontiers and the Frontiers Research Foundation joined this year’s Falling Walls Science Summit held on 7-9 November in Berlin, Germany. The Falling Walls Science Summit is a prominent gathering that unites experts from various scientific disciplines to explore groundbreaking research and foster collaborative solutions for the challenges of our time. As a global platform for scientific exchange, this annual event serves as a catalyst for innovation, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, and promoting breakthrough thinking.
The three-day event includes inspiring keynotes, thought-provoking discussions, and exciting pitches from some of the most innovative minds in science and technology, exploring how scientific breakthroughs can pave the way towards a more equitable and sustainable future. These breakthroughs cover a diverse range of topics, from physical sciences, life sciences, sciencepreneurship, art and science, and planetary health to discovering earth and space, emerging talents, engineering and technology, and social sciences and humanities.
The Falling Walls Foundation and Frontiers partnered to organize the Climate Action Future plenary table on 8 November, which addressed the slow and inadequate progress in climate action. Featuring a group of leaders in science, policy, and academic publishing, the plenary investigated the reasons behind the failure, emphasized the need to reinvigorate COP process with solution-driven methods in mind, and explored the role of open science in accelerating solutions, mobilizing stakeholders, and triggering a Green Renaissance. Vivienne Parry OBE, science journalist, author, and former BBC presenter, moderated the discussion, which featured:
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Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
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Massamba Thioye, Executive, The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
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Lars Peter Riishøjgaard, Director, Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, World Meteorological Organization
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Lee Howell, Executive Director, Villars Institute
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Frederick Fenter, Chief Executive Editor, Frontiers
Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute, emphasized the importance of the upcoming COP28 to be one of change, as the climate emergency is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. “Now we need to deliver. We need to be accountable; we need to align with science, we need to put the money on the table, and we have to do it in an equitable way. Now it’s time to pull up our sleeves and get serious. COP28 must be the mitigation COP. It must be the meeting when we start really showing credible pathways to phase out fossil fuels.”
Panelists also talked about other essential steps to bring about systemic change and restore the planetary boundaries. Massamba Thioye, executive of the UNFCCC, captured these key areas when he said: “We will not be able to address the challenge of climate and sustainability if we do not do something with our inner development goal. This can be articulated around three main principles: caring, sharing, and daring. Firstly, we need to genuinely care about the well-being and needs of the people and the planet. Secondly, we need to share knowledge, which is why open science is extremely important. And thirdly, we need to set goals and targets not on the basis of what we believe is possible, but on what is needed.”
The plenary echoed the three principles of caring, sharing, and daring raised by Thioye. Frederick Fenter, chief executive editor at Frontiers, highlighted the significance of sharing knowledge through open science and doing so with urgency. He referenced the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and how openly shared research through the CORD-19 dataset sparked innovation, resulting in millions of lives saved. This same can, and must, be done with the climate crisis. Fenter said: “Open science has to be part of the toolkit of solutions in terms of addressing the climate emergency.”
To unlock the world’s science, Fenter introduced the Open Science Charter, an initiative by the Frontiers Research Foundation, which urges governments, research institutions, and funders, as well as industry leaders to commit and act in four main areas:
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Universal and unrestricted access to scientific knowledge by 2030: Commit to transitioning all published research articles to fully open-access models by the end of the decade.
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Uphold peer-review quality: Preserve and champion the core values of scientific publishing, including registration, validation, certification, and perpetual conservation of scientific findings.
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Transparent pricing linked to quality: Adopt transparent financial models that directly correlate the price of publication with the quality of services offered.
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Strengthen trust in science: Make the knowledge available to the public who helped pay for it and who will benefit from its deployment
The theme of accelerating solutions for the most effective mitigation developed in the Climate Action Future plenary table was picked up and further discussed during the Planetary Boundary Science: Advancing Science to Save the Planet round table, organized by the Frontiers Research Foundation and the Falling Walls Foundation. The round table examined the type of science needed to make progress and how to get the right stakeholders on board. Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, professor of Open Science Policy (Free University of Brussels), and former Head of Unit for Open Science Policy at the European Commission, moderated the round table, which included:
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Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
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Wendy Broadgate, Global Hub Director, Future Earth
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Maria Nilsson, Professor, Umeå University, Frontiers Planet Prize national champion 2023, Sweden
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Paul Behrens, Associate Professor, Leiden University, Frontiers Planet Prize international champion 2023, the Netherlands
Despite the high-quality science being done within different fields, there is a greater need for more interdisciplinary science. Wendy Broadgate, global hub director at Future Earth, said: “The planet is a system of interconnected cycles, and we need very interconnected science to understand the systems themselves, how we people are perturbing those systems, and what solutions we need to bring our behavior and our activities back within planetary boundaries.”
This type of science is crucial to serve as a “voice of the earth system,” said director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Johan Rockström, and guide sustainable development with respect to the planetary boundaries. It’s made possible in part by funding institutions and initiatives like the Frontiers Planet Prize, which was launched in 2022. Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said: “The Frontiers Planet Prize is a competition based on scientific excellence, contributing to better understanding [of planetary science], showing potential ways forward and potential ways to scale, connecting several of the boundaries so that we don't have micro solutions, but rather something that can be planetary.”
Platforms like this also help bring more awareness to the latest discoveries among decisive stakeholders like policymakers and forward-thinking businesses. Opening these lines of communication and ensuring scientists are part of the thoughtful dialogue that considers the needs, concerns, and motivations of each party is key as everyone plays an important role in helping our planet.
To support and sign The Open Science Charter, please visit here.
More insights from the 2023 Falling Walls Science Summit sessions can be found on the Frontiers blog and Frontiers Policy Labs commentary.
Full recordings of each session are available here:
Climate Action Future plenary table
Planetary Boundary Science round table