Led by Nele Lassalle and David Ohse from the Argelander Institute for Astronomy, the team of around 20 students came up with the idea for the “2051: Energie im Weltraum” escape room with help from the enaCom Transfer Center at the University of Bonn. Their plans see players dive into a dystopian world in the year 2051. By conducting experiments as they journey through space, they are expected to discover all the things that renewable energy can do, specifically how it could help shield the future from just this kind of dystopia.
“There is no ‘Planet B,’ so the escape room teaches players about renewable forms of energy, among other things,” David Ohse says. “As well as making physics comprehensible in a fun way, however, we also want to illustrate how science works.” Alongside the Argelander Institute for Astronomy, the project is also being supported by the enaCom Transfer Center, IMPULSE – House for Intellectual Innovation and Creativity, and the Matter and Sustainable Futures Transdisciplinary Research Areas at the University of Bonn.
Almost 120 applications
Whether it is at home, on the move, in the office or in industry, we need energy for just about everything in our daily lives—an ever-increasing amount of it, in fact. But climate change and the finite nature of resources are presenting us with major challenges: what might the energy supply of the future look like, and how will it impact on how we all coexist? How should we talk about the issue of energy in order to get as many people involved as possible? The 2025 inter-university competition gave young researchers a platform to present some answers to these questions. The ten best project ideas were chosen out of nearly 120 submissions in the Science Year 2025. Each of the winning teams from Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Erlangen, Hagen, Munich, Münster, Regensburg, Siegen and Trier are to receive €10,000 in prize money, which they can use to put their idea into practice by the end of the year.
Regular progress updates from the teams
The victorious communications ideas covered topics including forms of renewable energy, complex energy policy decisions and artistic perspectives on sustainable energy systems. The teams used a variety of formats to get these ideas across, from an exhibition and an escape room through to an inclusive stage play. The ten successful teams, who come from every corner of Germany, will now be able to transfer their ideas from the drawing board to real life. They will also attend training and other events run by Wissenschaft im Dialog on subjects such as science communication and public relations, social media, storytelling and event organization. The teams will be providing regular updates on Instagram and the inter-university competition web page about the progress they have made, the difficulties they have encountered and any particular highlights along the way.
The competition organizers
The annual inter-university competition is organized by Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD) together with Bundesverband Hochschulkommunikation, the German Rectors’ Conference and—from this year onward—Die Junge Akademie and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the Science Year.
More information on the competition: hochschulwettbewerb.net/2025
More information on the Science Year: wissenschaftsjahr.de/2025
