The Festival of Scientific Research
Trieste is the Italian city with the highest concentration of researchers and one of the highest in Europe. From this extraordinary density of knowledge, Trieste Next was born in 2012, the Festival of Scientific Research that every September brings science out of the laboratories and places it at the center of city life, in Piazza Unità d'Italia, Europe's largest open-air living room by the sea.
For three days, the festival offers over a hundred events and hundreds of speakers: conferences, dialogues, seminars, workshops for schools, and exhibition spaces where research centers showcase their activities. Each edition revolves around a major theme that intertwines different disciplines, from neuroscience to artificial intelligence, from biology to social sciences, with a popular science approach that speaks to everyone, from specialists to the merely curious.
The festival is promoted by the Municipality of Trieste and the University of Trieste, together with the publishing group Nem and Il Piccolo, with the collaboration of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region and the major scientific institutions of the area: Area Science Park, OGS (National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics), and SISSA. A network that makes Trieste an international reference point for research.
Trieste Next is not just about dissemination: the festival awards the Trieste Next Prize – Science Book of the Year to the best scientific book of the year and welcomes hundreds of PhD students and young researchers from all over Italy. With a growing international dimension and programs in English, it is now one of the most important events on the Italian scientific calendar.
The fifteenth edition of Trieste Next will take place from September 25th to 27th, 2026, in Piazza Unità d'Italia, with the theme "The Shape of Thought. Interactions between brains and intelligences". The common thread intertwines neuroscience and computer science, biology and social sciences, to investigate intelligence as a plural faculty — natural, artificial, emotional, collective — and to understand how digital technologies are transforming cognitive processes.
Over a hundred events and three hundred speakers are expected over three days of conferences, seminars, and workshops, with a marked international dimension and programs also in English. The Trieste Next Prize – Science Book of the Year is confirmed.
The detailed program with speaker names and individual event times will be published on the official website triestenext.it in the weeks preceding the festival.
How to get there: Piazza Unità d'Italia is in the heart of Trieste, a short walk from the train station and the Rive (waterfront).
Tickets: most events are free to enter; some talks require booking, and many are streamed live.
Accommodation: a wide range of hotels and B&Bs are available in the city center.
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Piazza Unità d'Italia