Frontiers Science House opens: Don’t miss the science driving the Davos agenda
Frontiers
Frontiers Science House officially opened Monday in Davos corresponding with the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026. The week-long program places transformative, open science back at the heart of global dialogue and decision-making amid rapidly evolving geopolitical, economic, technological, and environmental challenges.
Dr Kamila Markram, CEO and co-founder of Frontiers, said:
“Our first objective in creating the Frontiers Science House is to give scientists a seat at the table with policy makers and business leaders to address our current societal challenges. Our second objective is to showcase that science can be easily and cost-effectively accelerated by simply making it openly accessible [...] This is why we started Frontiers: we are on a mission to make all science open so we can accelerate the scientific solutions to deliver healthy lives on a healthy planet.”
At the Frontiers Science House opening session this evening (19 January), speakers from government, academia, and industry highlighted that open science is increasingly central to addressing systemic challenges – from climate, health, and AI to global economic risk – when knowledge is shared openly and acted on quickly. Common themes were the need for openness and trust in science as well as the dangers of misinformation.
Dr Henry Markram, co-founder of Frontiers, INAIT, and the Open Brain Institute, said:
“Open science solves societal challenges and creates real returns – if we share open, useable data as we are doing with the Open Brain Institute, we not only accelerate the technology that brings solutions to medical and social problems, we stimulate the R&D investment that transforms businesses and economies.”
Speakers at the opening session, including John Arne Rottingen, CEO of the Wellcome Trust; Michiel Scheffer, President of the Board of the European Innovation Council; Farnam Jahanian, President of Carnegie Mellon University; Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London; and Lisa Monaco, President of Microsoft Global Affairs, all stressed the importance of open science for solving societal challenges, accelerating technological innovation, and enhancing international collaboration in their respective sectors.
What to watch this week
Frontiers Science House will present more than 50 sessions over the week, bringing evidence into conversations that shape global priorities alongside the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.
Program highlights include:
Open science and knowledge equity: Exploring how open research practices can strengthen transparency, equity, and impact across disciplines
Precision healthcare and data-driven medicine: Sessions on the latest advances that could influence global health strategies and investment
Announcement: Exploring the next frontier in healthcare with SPARK Microgravity as new approaches to cancer research beyond Earth are revealed (Session: “Curing cancer in space,” Tuesday, 20 January, 10:15 CET)
Climate and planetary restoration: Discussions on biodiversity, net-zero pathways, and scalable solutions for environmental resilience
Digital intelligence and governance: Panels on trustworthy AI, technology governance, and the implications of emerging digital systems
Financing scientific solutions: Forum segments addressing how science can be funded and scaled to deliver global impact
Emerging technologies: Showcasing breakthrough innovations that could reshape industries and societies
Live demonstration: AI and virtual reality enabling safer, more productive manufacturing and training environments (Frontiers Science House, Chalmers University of Technology demo area)
Live demonstration: For the world's first time, structural battery technology is demonstrated, revealing how this innovation could transform construction, transport, and energy systems (Session: “Discover Structural Batteries,” Tuesday, 20 January, 11:30 CET)
Live demonstration: Structural battery devices, including a hollow torch and aircraft door opening design, showcase practical applications of the technology (Frontiers Science House, Thursday, 22 January, 15:00 CET)
Confirmed speakers include Nobel laureates Victor Ambros (Physiology or Medicine, 2024) and John Martinis (Physics, 2025), CEOs such as Vasant Narasimham (Novartis), senior policy leaders including Alexandre Fasel (Swiss State Secretary) and Christian Ehler (German Member of the European Parliament), heads of international organizations like Khaled El-Enany (UNESCO) and Josef Aschbacher (European Space Agency), and others – placing scientific perspectives alongside economic and policy discussions at Davos.
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