Sciathon 2020: Contribute to Current Topics!

Send in your ideas for the Online Sciathon 2020. Credit: Julia Nimke/Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

Do you have ideas to find answers to the most challenging questions in science? Then you should participate in our Online Sciathon 2020!

As the Lindau Meetings are postponed to 2021, the Online Science Days 2020 (29 June – 1 July 2020) will build the platform for scientific exchange this summer. One week earlier, Lindau Alumni and all young scientists/economists who are invited to the Meetings 2021 are invited to work on new views, perspectives or solutions during the Sciathon (19 – 21 June). During the 48 hour hackathon-style event, they can contribute to projects in one of three different topics.

Three Topics for Your Projects

Three thematic areas have been defined for the Sciathon. Lindau Alumni can pitch their ideas through the Lindau Alumni Network for projects groups until 20 May 2020. Shortly thereafter, alumni as well as young scientists and young economists will have the opportunity to register for the project groups.

Lindau Guidelines

The implementation of the Lindau Guidelines is the first topic. First suggested by Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn during the 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in 2018, the Lindau Guidelines aim to develop and support a new approach for global, sustainable and cooperative open science in the 21^st century. The Lindau Guidelines establish a set of ten goals:

• Adopt an Ethical Code
• Cooperate Globally on Global Problems
• Share Knowledge
• Publish Results Open Access
• Publish Data to Repositories
• Work Transparently & Truthfully
• Change Reward Systems
• Support Talent Worldwide
• Communicate to Society
• Engage in Education

How  can these ambitious goals can be implemented? In what way can these goals help improve research culture? As Lindau Alumni you can send in your idea for a project that expands on one of theses goals or a proposal how to realise these guidelines. Members of the Lindau Meetings‘ community can apply later and work on the projects with the group leader in groups of ten people.

Communicating Climate Change

The second topic targets better communication of climate change issues. Climate change can have an impact on the daily life of every human being, and changes in behaviour can in turn help alleviate the problem. But this kind of engagement will only work when people get involved. This makes it all the more important for science to communicate climate change in a meaningful way.

For this reason we have made it one of the main themes of our Sciathon. The participants can tackle questions relating to this crucial topic for the future, including:

• How can scientists contribute to a better basis of information for the public?
• Which actors are important for comprehensive communication on climate change – science, schools, politics, etc. ?
• What could a comprehensive information campaign look like?
• How can the media contribute to evidence-driven communication on climate change?

We are eager to hear more about your strategies and projects to find a helpful way for communicating climate change.

Capitalism After Corona

The third topic focuses on the reason why we all stay at home and engage in online activities instead of meeting in person in Lindau: The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 caused an unexpected crisis concerning health and economy to a degree nobody had foreseen at beginning of the year. The spread of the coronavirus shed light on the downsides of our current economic system. At this critical juncture, it is crucially important to mitigate the economic and humanitarian consequences of this crisis and strengthen resilience for the future.

This topic encompasses a variety of questions and challenges that could be discussed during the Sciathon:

• How can we secure supply-chains for essential commodities and ensure universal access especially for the most vulnerable members of society?
• How should we deal with rising public and private debt, resulting from response strategies to the COVID-19-crisis?
• What can be done to secure people’s livelihood in times of crises, within and beyond national borders?
• What is the impact of the surge in digitalisation caused by the crisis on the economy?

New ideas how to deal with this situation are welcome!

Pitch Your Project now!

Lindau Alumni with fresh ideas should go to sciathon.org and pitch their projects! Young scientists/economists should not miss the chance to apply for groups later. The groups with the best results get the chance to present their work during Online Sciences Days 2020, a select number of groups will be invited to the 70th Lindau Meeting – and there is even a prize for the top groups.

The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings look forward to your ideas for the Online Sciathon 2020!