Science Shop Bonn
Our Concept: Educate - and Motivate
Land consumption, energy transition, new fields of work—we want to motivate people to get involved in causes that are important to our society and environment. That’s why we facilitate knowledge. But that’s not all: it is our goal to provide our citizens with tools that allow them to utilize this knowledge and take action and thus contribute to the democratic process.
We see ourselves as a mediator between science and civil society: we edit scientific findings critically and offer them to the public. Likewise we also try to bring questions from the public to the attention of our universities, so that they can tackle them with their tools.
Our Spheres of Work
1. Civil Society & Sustainability
Who decides on existential questions such as climate change, what can the individual do locally? How can even children research energy? How can we network on an international level and learn from civic participation in other countries? With our projects in the area of „Civil Society and Sustainability“ we hope to strengthen community activism and in return contribute more to the cause of sustainability.
2. Health & Consumer Protection
Is the cell tower on the roof next door hazardous to your health? Is the thermal insulation of your apartment sufficient? When are children’s toys healthy, when are textiles harmless? Our advisory services, expert reports and educational events regarding „health and consumer protection“ are meant to support you when it comes to a competent orientation and concrete decision-making.
3. Job Market & Education
The objective of our department „job market and education“ is to create orientation, to pave the way, to open up new opportunities. Our two information services „job market: environmentalism and natural sciences“ and „job market: education, culture and social services“ are useful tools to get an overview of the weekly job openings nationwide. In order to do so our experts review more then 140 daily and weekly newspapers and professional publications, as well as the online job market. In our editorial section we introduce and analyze new fields of work.
How can we motivate young people to work in the fields of sustainable energy and environmentalism? With our job fair and education fair „Renewable Energies“ and our educational projects we try to bring together companies, universities and job seekers.
Our Funding
Wissenschaftsladen Bonn e.V. is a non-profit organization, we work to cover the costs but not to make a profit. The organization as a whole receives no institutional funding. It regularly receives partial funding for its educational center, a recognized supporter of continuing education, and specifically the North Rhine Westphalia state law on continuing education.
We finance our work mostly through services—information, testing, consulting, through courses, seminars and lectures of the educational center as well as through external funding. Our projects are funded by the EU Commission, federal and state ministries, federal agencies as well as support networks, such as the KlimaKreis Cologne, charities and individual municipalities.
Our History
Outrage over the fact that scientists conduct their research in their ivory tower to no benefit of the public gave students and scientists the impulse to create the Wissenschaftsladen Bonn in 1984. Since then it has been our goal to bridge the gap between scientific findings on one hand and questions by the layperson on the other. With 30 employees and a turnover of about two million Euros our non-profit organization has never been this successful. In addition, it is also the largest science shop worldwide.
Additional Information
Statute of the Wissenschaftsladen Bonn e.V.
Download as PDF: Satzung des Wissenschaftsladen Bonn e.V.
