Opening Week

In times marked by uncertainty and profound transformation, one question becomes increasingly urgent: How can we live, act, and solve problems together? From climate crises and geopolitical conflict to technological upheaval and social fragmentation, we are no longer facing isolated challenges. Today’s crises are deeply interconnected, reinforcing one another in complex, unpredictable ways. These polycrises cannot be addressed by any single nation, discipline, or individual alone.
So what does cooperation mean in a world of accelerating change? How do we build trust across borders, cultures and generations? What does it take to share knowledge, shape technology responsibly, or defend and revitalize democracy?
The Opening Week invites you to explore cooperation as a creative, political, and deeply human force. Across four key themes, we will question and reimagine how societies come together and how each of us can become part of that process.

The Opening Week 2025 takes place from 1 October until 10 October. Under the motto COOPERATING, we invite you to work in projects and to focus on one of the four focal themes: 

1. Understanding Origins | The foundations of cooperation
2. Shaping Innovation and AI | Cooperation in economy and technology
3. Building Knowledge | Science as a cooperative process of discovery
4. Forging Alliances | Cooperation across borders and communities

During the Opening Week that marks the very beginning of the semester, your ideas will be essential. Together with around 1400 first-semester students, you will create a digital collage comprising both visionary videos and journalistic commentaries. We will collect and save your ideas during the semester up until the conference week, the final of the semester.

Renowned guests and keynote speakers will take part in the Opening Week. Through a modular programme, you can exchange your ideas with international experts from different fields of social relevance such as politics and science. At the same time, you will work within your project groups – all events take place on the campus.

We look forward to shape the Opening Week 2025 together with you.
 

Humans are a hyper-cooperative species: in societies all over the world individuals critically depend on one another for their everyday survival. But the same is true for bees, ants and other animals. What distinguishes human cooperation from that of other animals? What allows humans to think and act together? How did cooperation shape our mind? Together, we want to delve into the bright promises – but also the potential pitfalls of human cooperation.

Host: Prof. Dr. Manuel Bohn

The cooperation between humans and machines is fundamentally reshaping society, offering both remarkable opportunities and complex challenges. This can be seen as a partnership that enhances human capabilities by improving efficiency, fostering innovation, and enabling greater accessibility, particularly through assistive technologies. However, it also raises critical ethical concerns about autonomy, accountability, and unintended consequences, as well as legal questions regarding responsibility and regulation. Socially, the integration of machines into daily life and the workforce can lead to displacement and structural change, demanding proactive adaptation and inclusive policies. While artificial intelligence plays a key role, the broader human-machine dynamic deserves careful, interdisciplinary consideration to ensure that technological progress aligns with human values and societal well-being.

Host: Prof. Dr. Ricardo Usbeck

Scientific progress has always depended on cooperation—between researchers, institutions, and across generations. At the heart of this collaboration lie epistemic virtues such as trust, intellectual humility, and the willingness to share knowledge. At the same time, there is growing competitive pressure within academia—driven by funding structures, publication metrics, and institutional rankings—which poses a potential challenge to collaborative practices. This thematic focus seeks to explore how cooperation in the sciences has developed historically, how it is shaped by institutional conditions, and how it might be sustained or renewed in the face of current tensions. The goal is to better understand what makes cooperation in knowledge production possible—and where its limits lie.

Host: Prof. Dr. Christina Wessely