In a world of constant change, there is a pressing need for all of us to re-imagine likely challenges and scenarios to address the future. Are we equipped to do just that? While global challenges like climate change and migration need global solutions, we are in danger of returning to the old world of geopolitical rivalry, capitalist instability, nationalist self-assertion, and major wars. As Einstein said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them” – but we are in danger of doing just that.

In this event, thinkers from Berlin, Oxford and beyond are coming together in the iconic Humboldt Forum to look at likely futures for a complex world where the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ interact uneasily. They chart the move from global challenges to planetary imperatives and the impact of new technologies and of new forms of scientific knowledge (on democratic development, on health, on new forms of energy and ideas of social organisation and connectivity).

We hope you have space in your diary on Wednesday, 3 July 2024 to join us at the Humboldt-Forum for an all-day programme looking at different aspects of ‘futures’ in our joint research disciplines: STEM, the Medical Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Arts and Humanities. You will find the complete programme and the link to the registration page at the bottom of this page.