Hamburg Science Summit 2025

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to put science and innovation at the heart of Europe’s economy, echoing calls for stronger R&I investment in recent reports by Draghi, Letta and Heitor. However, Europe’s new agenda is taking shape against a geopolitical backdrop. The next Framework Programme (FP10) will not only succeed Horizon Europe – a programme widely seen as a success – but also form part of Europe’s response to a challenged security order, transatlantic tensions and concerns about strategic autonomy. This shift raises new questions about the balance between scientific independence and political priority-setting, exemplified by debates over the future role of the European Research Council and the relationship between research funding and the EU Competitiveness Fund. How can Europe maintain an open science system while adapting to new industrial and security imperatives? How should FP10 balance strategic goals with scientific openness and bottom-up, curiosity-driven research?

Recent shifts in US science policy under the Trump administration have cast doubt on the stability of transatlantic research cooperation. Budget cuts, political pressure on academic agendas, and the politicisation and restriction of access to scientific data – including environmental, health and demographic information – are undermining key pillars of the American research system. In Europe, these developments are prompting difficult choices. Some advocate for stronger engagement: attracting talent, hosting data infrastructures, and reinforcing Europe's role in global science. Others warn that limited resources, unequal conditions and the risk of competitive fragmentation could undermine long-term cooperation and mutual trust. How can Europe respond in ways that combine strategic foresight with a clear commitment to academic openness and collaboration?

Europe stands at a pivotal moment in shaping its innovation ecosystems. Despite progress through Horizon Europe and national programs, the continent still lags in scaling startups, attracting investment, and turning research into market-ready technologies. Hosted by Joachim Herz Foundation, Stifterverband and Volkswagen Foundation, this roundtable explores strategies on a local, national, and European level to foster a more competitive and resilient innovation landscape. We will take a look at regional activities, such as Hamburg’s bid to the Startup Factories competition, and the support foundations can provide. We will discuss Germany’s innovation landscape and the strategic role of universities as anchor institutions in innovation ecosystems as well as regional development and policy interventions. And we will broaden the view to the European level, talking about cross-border collaboration, funding mechanisms, and the role of philanthropy in shaping a cohesive European innovation space.

Science, at its best, is a system that helps researchers to ask better questions, generate robust answers, and translate insights into societal benefit. Yet the incentives that guide scientific work are increasingly seen as too narrow – prioritising publication count over real-world impact, secrecy over knowledge sharing, and inward dialogue over societal engagement. In response, reform initiatives such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) have emerged to address these misaligned incentive structures. As their efforts mature from abstract ideas to implementation, this roundtable, hosted by CoARA, will explore concrete options for reform, aspirations for better science, and the progress made along the way.

Rooted in the Enlightenment and Humboldt’s ideal of Bildung, Europe’s model of scientific enquiry has been shaped by the principles of academic freedom and a commitment to the common good. This contrasts with other models of science that place greater emphasis on economic utility or political control. Yet Europe faces a notorious underperformance in translating scientific discovery into marketable innovation, and appears to discourage scientific engagement with political priorities – most notably in areas such as defence. Should Europe revise the principles that have long guided its research culture – and, more broadly, the social contract between science and society – by opening science to stronger political and economic direction? Or can its normative foundations be reimagined to meet today’s economic and strategic demands?

As democracies navigate an increasingly complex political landscape, integrating scientific expertise into policymaking becomes both more urgent and more challenging. Ensuring that science informs political decisions without undermining academic independence requires careful design of advisory structures and mutual trust. The roundtable, hosted by the Max Planck Society, will examine how evidence-based policy advice can be embedded in democratic systems, highlighting institutional frameworks and mechanisms that support this exchange. Drawing on international perspectives, particular attention will be given to strategies for managing tensions between political expectations and the freedom of research, and to ways in which transparent, structured engagement can strengthen both policy outcomes and scientific integrity.

Europe is lagging behind when it comes to translating basic research into breakthrough innovation. While the EU and its member states provide significant research funding, Europe’s ability to finance the early development and scale-up phases of deep-tech innovation is failing. All too often, the commercialization of European innovation takes place elsewhere in the world. To address this challenge, some member states have created national innovation agencies following the examples of the US (D)ARPA agencies. At the EU-level, the European Institute of Technology and the European Innovation Council have been created to foster innovation. However, both have received criticism for their lack of independence, high levels of bureaucracy and slow decision-making. Against this background, this roundtable – hosted by the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation SPRIN-D – will discuss the potential need for a new type of European agency for supporting disruptive innovation.

Artificial intelligence has rapidly shifted from curiosity to essential collaborator. Researchers across disciplines are already using AI to scout literature, design experiments and prepare manuscripts. In scientific publishing, editors are beginning to explore AI tools, while reviewers are increasingly using them to draft review reports – not always in line with publishers’ policies. Looking ahead, AI may routinely perform core tasks of scientific inquiry, including hypothesis generation and testing. Yet these developments raise pressing concerns, from questions of authorship and editorial responsibility to opaque algorithms, encoded biases and unequal access to AI tools. Hosted by the Young Academy of Europe, this roundtable convenes researchers, publishers, learned societies and AI companies to explore the impact of AI on the scientific enterprise, and to discuss principles and training pathways that ensure responsible use of AI in research and publishing.

Quantum technologies are among the few fields where Europe remains highly competitive in R&I – in sharp contrast to other domains such as AI or cloud computing. Ambitious programmes in Germany, France and at EU level aim to enable the current leap from research experiments to real-world applications. Yet these developments raise crucial questions. On the one hand, efforts to build a European quantum internet promise a highly secure digital infrastructure, enabling data exchange protected by the laws of quantum physics. On the other, quantum computers could soon break the encryption underpinning today’s internet – with far-reaching implications for data privacy, the financial sector and national security. How can Europe prepare for both the promise and the disruption? And how can it safeguard its lead as global investment accelerates?

Recent years have seen growing pressure on democratic institutions and a corresponding erosion of scientific freedom in various contexts. As a cornerstone of liberal democracies, scientific freedom enables critical reflection on political and institutional developments. This is particularly important in times of geopolitical upheaval. To maintain its authority as a fundamental right, scientific freedom should be actively practiced even under difficult conditions and should shape researchers from the beginning of their studies. This roundtable, organised by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, will explore how researchers and scientific institutions can engage across borders to strengthen scientific freedom and respond collectively to adverse circumstances and vocal opponents.

In today’s fast-changing geopolitical and technological environment, Europe must boost its competitiveness and reduce strategic dependencies. The Heitor Report “Align, Act, Accelerate” urges bold action to position Europe as a global leader in research, technology, and innovation. Scientific excellence alone is no longer enough – Europe must translate research into industrial leadership, scalable technologies, and strategic autonomy. Research infrastructures, both established and emerging, are key to this transformation. They drive innovation, support technological ecosystems, and strengthen Europe’s resilience. This roundtable, hosted by DESY, brings together leaders from science, policy, and industry to explore how research infrastructures can fuel Europe’s technological sovereignty. The German roadmap, featuring synchrotrons, Free Electron Lasers, and innovation hubs like Science City Hamburg-Bahrenfeld, will serve as a forward-looking case study. The event will conclude with actionable recommendations to embed these assets in Europe’s industrial and geopolitical strategy.