Running Saturday 5 – Sunday 20 April, the 2025 Festival explored the theme Spaceship Earth.

The Festival explored the challenges of living on a planet with finite resources through the lenses of science fiction and space exploration. The programme included 117 events, from hands-on family workshops to inspiring talks from world-renowned speakers such as Prof Richard Dawkins, NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan, Great British Sewing Bee’s Patrick Grant and Prof Johan Rockström.

With the theme, Spaceship Earth, this years Festival explored how to ‘live like an astronaut’ in the battle cry of a new movement that urged us to learn from the constraints of living on a space station, or a distant planet, where resources are impossibly constrained and every gram of material and watt of energy is precious. Transferring these principles to life on Earth would radically reduce the pressures we place on natural resources.

This year we launched DiscoveryLab – a reimagining of our flagship family experience, where young people get to enjoy immersive, science-themed environments, with story-led activities and thematic zones exploring real-life situations.

Running 30 March – 14 April, the 2024 Festival explored the theme Shaping the Future

Taking over the city between Saturday 30 March – Sunday 14 April, the 2024 Edinburgh Science Festival included 155 events from hands-on workshops and interactive shows for families, to exhibitions, talks and science nights out for adults. With the theme Shaping the Future, this year’s Festival explored some of the cutting-edge science and technology that can help us create a future that is sustainable and accessible for all.

Our pop-up science centre returned to City Art Centre, supported by Cirrus Logic, where mini-scientists could get hands-on performing keyhole surgery on a ‘patient’ in ER Surgery and take on the role of a forensic scientist to solve a crime in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

We showcased how biomaterials may be the sustainable solution to combat over consumption in our Growing Home exhibition in the National Museum of Scotland’s Grand Gallery. Popular discussion events included The Secret of Psychology of Magic with Prof Richard Wiseman, Disposing of the Body chaired by BBC Health and Science presenter Laura Foster and the prestigious Edinburgh Medal, presented to pioneering non-profit medical research institute Mario Negri Institute for their dedication to science for social good.

Celebrating a wholehearted and very welcome return to hands-on science, the 2023 Edinburgh Science Festival embraced the concepts of experimentation, innovation, creativity, curiosity and invention.

Using the 2023 Festival as a living laboratory – a space for experimentation with formats, approaches, and partnerships – we wanted audiences of all ages not just to talk about but to get up close with the science of all sorts through a special programme of exciting real-life experiments and special events.

We put all living things under the microscope with Experimental Life, exploring the captivating wonder and diversity of life in all its forms. While our new FutureFest and EarthFest themed weekends provided great opportunities for yet more interactive family fun.

Our varied programme celebrated the spirit of adventure and enquiry that pushed the frontiers of our knowledge about ourselves, the world around us and our place in the wider Universe.

Focusing on everything from personal to planetary health – and with an unashamed emphasis on the urgency of tackling the climate crisis – the 2022 Festival explored lifeforms, lifecycles, revolutionary ideas and solutions to global challenges. Revolutions in science and ideas have given us the scientific, industrial and now climate and data revolutions, each increasing our understanding of the Universe and our place in it.

In 2022, the year’s Festival acted as a heartfelt call for a truly radical shift in the attitudes and behaviours of individuals, organisations and nations to combat the climate crisis and protect the delicately interconnected lifecycles of our planet.