A word from...

Vicky Rosin, Programme Director

In light of recent events in the UK we would like to reassure those coming to ESOF of both the conference and Manchester's dedication to science and scientific collaboration. The EuroScience Open Forum is, at its heart a European conference, but with a distinct global appeal. Scientists, innovators, students, policymakers and people interested in science from all over the world attend and participate in this special conference and it will go ahead with energy and enthusiasm.

As one of the UK’s first major international events after the referendum, ESOF and Manchester will now serve as a platform for discussion and debate about future relationships within the European science community and how we best move forward in collaboration.

Manchester is proud of its status as European City of Science and we look forward to presenting a fantastic public engagement festival next month, Science in the City, which will be wrapped around the ESOF meeting.

For a personal view on the referendum result in the UK I urge you to read Jerzy Langer's - Chair of the Programme Committee - letter.

Sherry Coutu: the importance of scale ups

Serial entrepreneur and advisor to companies, universities and charities, Sherry Coutu CBE, will open our ‘Business Day’ with a keynote lecture dedicated to the importance of, and obstacles to scale-ups.

Sherry will also touch upon scale-ups' vital role in driving economic growth and productivity; scale-up business needs; and how the scientific community can lean in to ‎give support to foster scale-up growth.

See Sherry at 08:30 on Tuesday 26 July in the Exchange Auditorium.

More information coming soon.

3 kinds of money: business angel vs venture capitalist vs corporate finance

A business angel, a venture capitalist and a corporate executive walk into ESOF...

Scientists and investors seldom speak the same language; that’s part of the problem in getting new ideas out of the labs and into the markets. This session brings together Candace Johnson and Michael Lee with Hermann Hauser, to discuss what makes them put money on the table when a new project is presented to them.

This is an event not to be missed on Tuesday, our dedicated business day.

More information.

Grants allow early career researchers to attend ESOF

One of the aims of ESOF is to inform, instruct and inspire students and early career researchers about the excitement of science and technology.

Thanks to Robert Bosch Stiftung, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Eotvos Lorand University, the University of South Bohemia and the Graphene Flagship, around 90 students and early career researchers will be exposed to cutting edge research and development at ESOF.

These bright young minds will join the conference to mingle with delegates, exhibitors, speakers and communicators and to find out more about the latest scientific breakthroughs.

More information.

ESOF takes to the stage at the bluedot festival

On Saturday 23 July, we will be taking ESOF 2016 out onto the festival field as some of our most exciting speakers appear on as part of ‘ESOF Presents…’ on the Close Encounters stage.

Science meets music as Sara Lowes performs extracts from Graphene Suite, before CERN’s Cosmic Piano is played by cosmic rays and the Large Hadron Collider’s results are sonified in Jamming with the Universe.

Talks include Europlanet’s Anita Heward and Philip Diamond of the SKA Organisation and Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel prize will speak alongside special guests who will perform dramatic readings of scientific texts.

To find out more, please visit the website.

Don't forget your sunnies

Manchester may not be well-known for its sunny weather but we have it on good authority (the Met Office's long-range forecast, which is still changeable but it's the best we have at the moment) that the sun should make an appearance at ESOF. Just as well we made sure to order in some ESOF sunglasses!

"Around the middle of July there is a possibility of a more settled spell of weather, potentially bringing longer dry periods to much of the country. With this change there would most likely be more in the way of sunshine with some locally warm temperatures and lighter winds".

ESOF Programme Book

The deadline to order your ESOF programme book is this Friday 1 July, a limited print run of the book has been produced and is available for pre-order at a cost of just £20. To order your copy select the programme book option when on the registration portal. If you have already registered and would like to purchase the programme book, simply log back into your ESOF account and add the book to your existing registration.

If you have any questions about the programme book please contact the delegate services team at esof2016@conferencepartners.com