Science without borders at the Athens Science Festival 2018

The non-profil educational organisation SciCo organised for the fifth year in a row the unique festival on science and innovation, Athens Science Festival, at Technopolis City of Athens, with 22,000 visitors. Of those, 6,000 were students who were exposed to many interesting scientific activities. During 6 days, the festival hosted 160 research, academic and educational organisations, 115 different interactive events, 48 labs for kids, 23 workshops, 55 speeches and 5 competitions, as well as a series of other events for visitors of all ages!

Particularly charismatic and acclaimed speakers of international fame impressed and engaged their audience. Among them Athanassios Fokas, Gábor Domokos, Joseph Sifakis, Vasilios Nasis, Evangelos Eleftheriou, Dimitris Kyritsis, Zeev Zalevsky, Carsten Mahrenholz, Luca Turin, Vasilis Ntziachristos, Theocharis Apostolatos, James Beacham and Francesco Stellacci.

At the same time, Marsha Ivins, Athena Coustenis, Jenny Leivadarou, Elspeth Garman and Alexandra Olaya Castro were featured in this year's tribute on "Women in Science", highlighting the importance of women scientists and promoting equal opportunities for both sexes. In addition, as the city of Athens is the UNESCO World Book Capital 2018, the program of the Athens Science Festival included a series of activities, speeches, discussions, workshops and performances highlighting the strong links between books and science.

Under this year's motto "Science Without Borders" a large number of universities, research centres, scientific associations and educational institutions, took us with them on a journey to the magic world of technology presenting impressive applications, experiments and innovative discoveries, offering a different channel of scientific knowledge to visitors of all ages. Additionaly, the most remarkable science communicators in our country competed with one another in the first competition of Science Communications Awards – ΕΠΙ2 2018 and the stage of the 5th Athens Science Festival left us all with the best impressions.

Through interactive educational workshops for children, adult seminars and a variety of innovative activities, our main goal was achieved; the public approached science, scientific knowledge became synonymous to fun and joy, and the message that science does not know of borders and constraints was successfully passed.

The Athens Science Festival is organized annually by the educational organisation “Science Communication – SciCo”, the British Council, the Technopolis of the City of Athens, the Onassis Foundation Scholars’ Association and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology with the invaluable contribution from a plethora of academics, research and educational institutions.