Knowledge from Berlin

Image: Berlin University Alliance

01.06.2022
Knowledge from Berlin

Brain City Berlin

"Wissen aus Berlin" (Knowledge from Berlin) is the name of a YouTube channel of the Berlin University Alliance. Scientists from BUA-funded projects report on their research in Brain City Berlin and discuss the big issues of our time. The second season of the short videos started at the end of May. There is a new episode every Tuesday.

Is there nothing new on Netflix, and have you already seen a lot in the media libraries? Then it’s well worth checking out the YouTube channel of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA). The second season of “Wissen aus Berlin” has just started there. “It deals with the big issues of our time. And we try to show you how exciting science in Berlin is”, says Prof. Dr. Günter M. Ziegler in the trailer for the series. The President of Freie Universität Berlin is not only a Brain City ambassador, but is also on the Board of Directors of the BUA, the association of the three Berlin universities FU Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

A new episode of the series goes online every week on the BUA film channel. There are 23 videos in total. And they all provide entertaining insight into Berlin research. The topics are just as diverse as the research in the Brain City itself. “How do we design the city of tomorrow?”, “How do robots become social beings?” or “How can chemistry help us combat climate change?” These are just some of the questions that researchers address in the individual episodes of “Wissen aus Berlin”. In each case, they will present projects funded by BUA within the framework of the “Special tender: Pandemic”, the “Grand Challenge Initiative Social Cohesion” and the “Experimental Laboratories for Science Communication”. Scientists from the Berlin Clusters of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script”, “Unifying Systems in Catalysis”, “Math+” and “Science of Intelligence” also tell stories from their projects.

The series itself is an exciting example of science communication. It has a system: “We support scientists in developing new formats with which they can exchange their research results with the general public,” says Prof. Dr. med. Marc Dewey, member of the Steering committee of the BUA focus area “Fostering Knowledge Exchange” and Heisenberg Professor of Radiology at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. “The varied stories from the different disciplines of the four collaborative partners reflect the diversity of Berlin research and form an excellent basis for further knowledge exchange with society.”

Strengthening this exchange is also one of the core goals of the Berlin University Alliance. The university network came together in 2019 to further develop Berlin as a science location into a joint research area that is among the best in the world. The content of the BUA focuses on the “Grand Challenges”, the great issues of our time such as climate change, global health or social cohesion. The BUA is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the State of Berlin as an excellence network as part of the Excellence Strategy competition.

“Wissen aus Berlin” makes the previous results of BUA research visible. A new episode goes online every Tuesday. If you miss an episode, you can watch it later on the YouTube channel. The first season is still online. Their main topic: The effects of Corona on individuals and society.