Which wall will your research break?

Falling Walls Lab is a world-class pitch competition and networking forum for students and early-career professionals.

In a three-minute pitch, participants will have the opportunity to present their solution to a pressing problem facing our world today. Presentations are made to a high-calibre jury of experts, in front of a public audience.

The winner of the competition will represent Manitoba at the global Falling Walls finale in Berlin, Germany. The international three-day conference is inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It promotes research and innovation in all disciplines, by posing the question, “Which walls will fall next?” With aspiring scientists, researchers and innovators from over 60 countries, the event is a leading forum for scientific breakthrough and dialogue.

Falling Walls Lab is organized by the Falling Walls Foundation, a non-profit organization in Berlin dedicated to supporting science and the humanities.  Learn more at www.falling-walls.com.  Our lab is an independently organized event.

Grand Prize winner:  

Natasha Theriault for "Breaking the Wall of Vaccine Equity"

2nd Place winner:

Andrew Tse for "Breaking the Wall of Prenatal Therapy with Nanoparticles"

3rd Place winner:

Mun Kim for "Breaking the Wall of Genetic Detection using Biosensors"

Audience-choice winner:

Calvin Howard for "Breaking the Wall of Dementia Diagnosis"

View the Event Program, with list of all 15 presenters

The Falling Walls Lab competition is open to university students and early-career professionals of all disciplines.

Age

You must be 18 years or older when submitting your application. There is no upper age limit for applicants.

Education

You must fulfil at least one of the following formal requirements:
•    You are currently enrolled in university and/or are currently a postdoc
•    You received a Bachelor’s degree no more than 10 years ago
•    You received a Master’s degree no more than 7 years ago
•    You received a PhD no more than 5 years ago

Note: An MD (medical degree excl. a doctoral dissertation) is considered equivalent to a Master’s degree. A Dr. med. (medical degree incl. a doctoral dissertation) is considered equivalent to a PhD.

To attend information sessions, please RSVP by email at fallingwallsmb@umanitoba.ca.

Top prize:

• Win a trip to Berlin (travel and accommodations included)
• Participate in the global Falling Walls Lab Finale (November 7, 2022) in Berlin, to compete to become the Breakthrough Winner of the Year in the Emerging Talents category
• Receive a ticket to the Falling Walls Science Summit (November 7-9, 2022)
• Take part in exclusive extended program (including workshops, networking dinner, etc.)
• Access to 1-on-1 coaching from pitch experts to further develop their presentation prior to the global finale
•  $1000 prize
• Receive additional 1-on-1 training at a European lab of their choice, through EURAXESS Worldwide, and $500 cash prize to assist with the travel to that hub during their trip to Germany.

2nd prize, sponsored by Research Manitoba: $750 prize 

3rd prize: $500 prize

Audience Choice winner: $500 prize 

You will need to have your CV in PDF format, and have the following information ready to complete your application in the online form:

• General Information
  • Name, email address, etc.
• Education
  • Education status
  • University / College
  • Name of studies/major
  • Field of study
  • Grade on a general scale
  • Expected degree
  • Expected graduation year
• Current affiliation
  • Institution name
  • Position
  • Institution city and country
  • Awards
  • CV to upload in PDF format, max. 3MB
• Innovative idea
  • Presentation title: Breaking the wall of... (40 character limit incl. spaces)
  • Project field as well as subfield within project field (40 character limit incl. spaces)
  • Please state the problem you plan to address (200 character limit incl. spaces)
  • Please state your solution to the problem (200 character limit incl. spaces)
  • Please describe your project in 1-2 sentences (200 character limit incl. spaces)
  • Link to project website/video (if applicable)

• Breakthrough factor (50%): How innovative is the proposed idea?
• Relevance/Impact (40%): How relevant is the idea to the discipline and beyond?
• Structure/Performance (10%): How convincing was the presentation?

Learn more about past winners of international Falling Walls Labs, and the overall Breakthrough Winners from the 2021 Science Summit in Berlin.

• 2021 Lab winners  
• Breakthrough winners