Leiden European City of Science 2022 (a.k.a. Leiden2022)

Leiden2022 was a 365-day science festival aimed at connecting science with society, exploring science, knowledge, art, and skills through exhibitions, workshops, activities, and special events.

To reach as many people as possible despite the pandemic, we decided to focus on the entire spectrum of human knowledge, covering not just science but also expertise, know-how, arts, culture and craft, and to make the whole project as interactive as possible. Therefore, everyone was invited to nominate topics for each day of the year, resulting in a tear-off calendar. An astonishing 60,000 copies were printed and distributed free of charge throughout markets, schools, libraries and even vaccination sites. The process was simple: everyone could adopt a day’s topic and become ‘owner of the day,’ and together with scientists organize an activity. This resulted in more than a thousand small initiatives (called ‘Knowledge through the Neighbourhoods’), special projects and major scientific events. There were two rules for scientists: you are not allowed to stay in your institute and you are not allowed to give a lecture. And so, curiosity was celebrated for 365 days.