On 20 May, 2026, the EC2U Science Contest will take place as part of the EC2U Forum in Turku (Finland). This time, researchers and students from Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany), the University Turku, and Umeå University will be competing against each other.
The EC2U Science Contest is a fast‑paced, entertaining event where multidisciplinary teams of researchers are given the same question and just a few minutes to agree on an answer before presenting it to the audience. The questions are submitted in advance by the public and can address scientific, societal or ethical issues, as well as curious “what if?” scenarios.
Both the audience and an international jury award points based on clarity, logic, creativity and entertainment value. The event is held in English and will be broadcast online, allowing participation beyond Turku.
The Science Battle 2021 is available to watch on YouTube in its entirety, as well as in a best-of version. Recordings of the EC2U Science Battle/Contest 2022–2025 are also available on YouTube.
In previous Science Contests, audience questions have included:
The EC2U Science Contest 2026 will be streamed live on Youtube at 15.00 CET on 20 May.
Both the audience present and those online can participate by voting for the best team based on their answers, while a jury awards points to each team for every question.
Hanna Söderlund
Associate Professor
Language Studies
Jesper Enbom
Associate Professor
Media and Communications
Jerker Fick
Associate Professor
Chemistry
Kristina Lejon
Professor
Immunology
Manju Maharjan
Doctoral student
Plant Physiology
