ESOF2024: Conference summary

The EuroScience Open Forum 2024 (ESOF2024), which was held from 12 to 15 June in the International Congress Centre in Katowice, brought together leading scientists from Europe and the world under the slogan ‘Life changes science’. The programme included lectures, seminars, debates, workshops, poster presentations, and exhibitions. The conference theme centred around energy transition, sustainable development, cultural identity and societal transformation, scientific excellence, healthy society, and digital transformation.

ESOF2024 programme featured several hundreds of speakers from Poland, Europe, and the world who took part in 130 thematic sessions and 90 poster presentations. The conference attracted approximately 3500 participants from 40 different countries.
There were also accompanying events: EU Prize for Citizen Science 2024, Green Growth Ahead, and the European Talent Fair – a European job fair for young scientists and people interested in taking up research work. The last day of the conference presented a great opportunity to network outside the ICC and to discover the scientific potential of Silesian universities directly.

The ESOF2024 conference was a meeting place, a dynamic platform for knowledge and innovation exchange, which showed that science is ever present in our lives. We often perceive science as abstract and disconnected from our everyday lives. This is why such events as ESOF2024 are so important. They remind us that science is not something foreign to us – it is a field that brings changes to many areas of our lives and responds to the challenges posed by reality.

We would like to thank all participants for their active involvement and contribution to the success of the event.