ICTP at Trieste Next 2026

Trieste is getting ready for the annual science festival, Trieste Next, which will take place from 25 to 27 September in combination with the European Researchers Night that will be celebrated on Friday 25 September.

This year, the overarching theme of Trieste Next is “The Shape of Thought: Interactions Between Brains and Forms of Intelligence”. The full programme for Trieste Next is available here. ICTP scientists will participate in the event with hands-on activities, panel discussions and special outreach activities for schools as highlighted below. 

Public screening:  “Budinich, il pirata della scienza”

Thursday 24 September, 18:00 hrs
Teatro Miela, Piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3, Trieste

An homage to the life and legacy of physicist and ICTP co-founder Paolo Budinich, produced by ReBel Film, with the support of ICTP, SISSA and the Trieste International Foundation (FIT), and under the patronage of the University of Trieste and Immaginario Scientifico.

The event will be in Italian, but the documentary will have English subtitles. 

Access is free, but reservations are required at the event’s web page.

Exhibition space 

Friday 25 September, 14:00 – 22:00 hrs; Saturday 10:00-22:00 hrs; Sunday 10:00-20:00 hrs
Piazza Unità d’Italia, Trieste

This year again, ICTP joins forces with other Trieste-based science organisations backed by the United Nations: The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS), the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), and the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) for an exhibit titled "Global South: Brains in Motion from Drain to Gain". Over the whole weekend, activities at the shared booth will highlight the organisations' shared missions, while ICTP scientists will engage with the public through hands-on activities and math games.

Two special activities will take place at our shared booth:

• Presentation: “Building a biotechnology research capacity in Nepal: challenges and opportunities”
  Friday 25 September 2026, 15:00-15:30 hrs
  ICTP-TWAS-OWSD-IAP exhibition space, Piazza Unità
  
  Prajjwal Rajbhandari and Rojlina Manandhar of the Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology (RIBB) in Nepal will share their experience and answer questions from the audience.

• Photo exhibit: “La scienza che trasforma. Volti e storie di ricercatrici del Sud globale” by Nicole Leghissa 
  Sunday 27 September 2026, 15:30-16:30 hrs
  ICTP-TWAS-OWSD-IAP exhibition space, Piazza Unità
  
  Photographer and film-maker Nicole Leghissa and OWSD programme coordinator Tonya Blowers will present the project, which features women scientists from the Global South, in connection with the mission of OWSD.

Panel discussions

ICTP, TWAS, IAP and OWSD are coordinating the following panel discussions:

• Networks as Channels of Scientific Diplomacy, organised by TWAS-IAP-OWSD
  Friday 25 September, 18:00 hrs
  Piazza Unità d’Italia, Area Talk 2
  
  In a world facing complex global challenges, scientific knowledge increasingly emerges through networks rather than isolated actors. This TWAS-IAP-OWSD session examines how international scientific networks —including academies, researchers from the global South and women scientists— serve as channels of science diplomacy. The event explores how networks shape scientific and policy discourse, build trust, and foster South–South cooperation through long standing relationships, inclusive dialogue and collective intelligence.

  Speakers: 

  Samiya Abi Jaoude, neurosurgeon, Adolphe de Rothschild Fondation Hospital Paris
  Kleinsy Bonilla, researcher and consultant in development economics and science diplomacy
  Marcelo Knobel, TWAS executive director
  Lamberto Maria Moruzzi, vice director general for growth and export promotion, director for scientific, space and sports diplomacy, directorate-general for Economic Cooperation, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation

  Moderator: Giovanni Ortolani, TWAS public information officer

  Book your seat

• Uniting Minds: Stories of Global Science, organised by ICTP
  Friday 25 September, 21:00 hrs
  Piazza Unità d’Italia, Area Talk 1
  
  A century after Abdus Salam’s birth, his vision of science as a shared human endeavour remains crucial. Together with Paolo Budinich, Salam imagined a place where scientists from across the world could meet, learn and collaborate. Since its founding in 1964, ICTP has changed the lives of thousands of researchers in the Global South. Through the testimonies of ICTP scientists and stories from the documentary “Budinich, il pirata della scienza”, the panel will explore the enduring value of global scientific cooperation and the role of ICTP in ensuring that science remains a uniting force.
  
  Speakers: 
  Atish Dabholkar, ICTP Director
  Sara Švagelj, co-founder of ReBel Film; writer, producer and director of photography for feature-length documentaries
  Erio Tosatti, Professor Emeritus at SISSA
  Jawaher Al-Tuweity, Postdoctoral Researcher at São Paulo State University, Brazil, ICTP-Arab Fund Associate
  Komal Rubab, PhD student at SISSA, ICTP Diploma graduate
  Aditya Hebbar, ICTP postdoctoral fellow

  Moderator: Sandro Scadolo, ICTP Senior Research Coordinator

  Book your seat

Both events will be in English without translation. Attendance is free but registration is mandatory. 

Street Science
Friday 25 September, 17:00 hrs
Piazza Unità d’Italia, Town Hall Arcades

As part of Researchers’ Night, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Scientific and Innovation System coordinates Street Science, an event where researchers step out of their laboratories and share their passion for science with captivating mini-talks. In his ‘Aperitivo with Entanglement,’ Emmanuele Cinnirella, an ICTP postdoctoral fellow in the Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics section, will introduce one of the most important and counterintuitive phenomena in quantum physics.
Sara Dalafi of TWAS will talk about the science diplomacy of space.

Other events with ICTP scientists

On Friday 25 September at 15:00 Erika Coppola will take part in a panel discussion entitled “Thinking without certainty,” organised by SISSA. 

Planting Water photo exhibit
Saturday 26 September, 14:00-22:00 hrs
Sunday 27 September, 10:00-20:00 hrs
After Trieste Next, from 28 September until 8 October, 10:00-13:00 hrs and 17:00-20:00 hrs
Sala Comunale d’Arte (Piazza Unità d'Italia 4, Trieste)

From 26 September to 8 October 2026, the Sala Comunale d'Arte in Trieste will host Planting Water, a photographic project by Peruvian photographer Musuk Nolte, winner of the inaugural Through Southern Lenses: Science in Focus international photography award. 

Planting Water follows communities in the Peruvian Andes whose ancestral practices have enabled them to ‘plant’ water by restoring ancient hydraulic systems and working with the landscape rather than against it. Nolte's photographs reveal that environmental understanding is preserved not only through scientific inquiry but through memory, tradition, and lived experience.

Through Southern Lenses: Science in Focus is an annual international photography award that celebrates scientific excellence across the developing world through the power of photography. The initiative is a collaboration between the Conrado Wessel Foundation and TWAS.

The exhibition in Trieste, supported by BCC Venezia Giulia, brings together Nolte's photographic essay on water access and climate adaptation in the Peruvian Andes with a selection of photographs from the TWAS archives. Together, these works explore the connections between scientific research, local knowledge and environmental resilience.

Activities for schools

Activities dedicated to schools will take place throughout the week of 21 September as part of Researchers’ Night and during the morning of Friday 25 September as part of Trieste Next.

On Monday 21 September, climate scientist Erika Coppola, Head of ICTP’s Earth System Physics section, will meet middle-school students and embark with them on a journey to understand what is happening to our planet using science to decode the many clues that the planet gives out. 

On Friday 25 September, at 9:00, ICTP, TWAS, OWSD and IAP will welcome high-school students to their booth to meet researchers from the global South and learn about their work and experience and how to use math to become stronger at playing board games.