November 14, 2025

We’re proud to share that RCIScience was recently profiled in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany’s most respected national newspapers.

The feature highlights our growing international leadership in strengthening the relationship between science and society – and recognizes our Director, Carrie Boyce, for her role moderating a major panel on trust in science at the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin.

As countries around the world grapple with declining public trust in scientific institutions, RCIScience’s work to engage adults, support science communicators, and champion science as a vibrant part of culture is increasingly being looked to as a model. We’re honoured to see our Canadian perspective included in this global conversation and remain committed to building meaningful, people-centred pathways between science and society.

Translation

Out of the Ivory Tower

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Print Edition) | November 13, 2025

By Frauke Zbikowski

In Germany, more than 80 percent of the population trusts science. For just over half, that trust is high to very high. Only one-tenth do not trust research. From a scientist’s perspective, that may sound good — but there’s a catch: trust has been declining for the past five years, and the number of skeptics is rising. During the pandemic years 2020 to 2022, more than 90 percent of Germans expressed trust in science. “Science in Dialogue,” the organization that conducts an annual representative survey known as the Science Barometer, calls the figures “stable.”

The organizers of the Falling Walls Conference see the drop in trust as a reason for debate. For a sustainable future, it is not enough to present technological solutions. Such solutions can only gain traction if their inventors are perceived as trustworthy. Since these issues are often global, the panel discussion “Pathways to Trust in Science Engagement” at the November 6 conference in Berlin looked beyond Germany and Europe — with participants from Africa and the Americas.

The moderator, Carrie Boyce, has been active in science communication for over ten years. Originally from Northern Ireland, she has been working since 2017 at the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, where she now serves as director. The institute’s goal is to establish science as a form of culture and make it accessible to everyone — including by helping scientists become better communicators. “If we fail to get adults — voters — interested in public health, the climate crisis, and the use of new technologies, we’re going to have problems. Their decisions have a massive impact on our lives,” she said.

Boyce views with concern how the reputation of science is eroding in the U.S. and around the world. She sees it as part of her mission to counter this trend. But the impact of scientific findings remains limited if science ignores social questions. Her appeal: “We need to think about how to build relationships between science and society.”

Mario Andrés De Leo-Winkler, an astrophysicist from Mexico, reported that in Latin America it is crucial to bring science to the streets — quite literally, “for example, into the subway.” The goal is to make scientific insights infiltrate daily life. Scientists themselves must therefore leave the ivory tower and bring science to the people. This creates a sense of closeness and pays off, as current data show: in Mexico and Argentina, 90 percent of the population believe that climate change directly affects their lives. The same applies to 80 percent of Chileans, 87 percent of Brazilians, and 70 percent of Peruvians.

Trust in science means trusting the people who do science, emphasized Silvia Mwendia from Kenya. She works for an organization that supports early-career female scientists in Africa. Although there have been initiatives, events, and school competitions in her country for more than ten years, science and society remain largely separate worlds. Science is still too often framed in terms of “development” and described using numbers and metrics that have little to do with people’s everyday lives. Yet progress is visible — for example, through science journalism and social media.

Badin Borde, head of the education department at Siemens Stiftung, observed that even in schools there is often little understanding of what science actually is. “Yet it’s all around us,” he said. That’s why he considers science education for children essential. However, it must be more closely connected to real life. “When we talk about climate change,” he said, “we talk about polar bears.” But for many people, polar bears are far away. Only when people understand what science has to do with their own lived reality can trust emerge.