Competition / Science Island International Design Contest / Kaunas City Municipality

The Science Island initiative is a response to the success of international exemplar science centres, notably the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw, the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany, and the Experimentarium in Copenhagen, Denmark, all of which have popularised science through hands-on enquiry and exposition.

Science Island’s perspective on three interrelated scientific themes, the Human, the Machine and Nature/Ecology, will be framed by the future: the most likely outcomes for the world, alternative scenarios, and the extent to which each of us is part of that unfolding process. The project’s overall aim is to foster and advance the development of science and culture in Kaunas, and in Lithuania as a whole.

The project is being developed in cooperation with all Lithuanian universities and many leading experts in science, biomedical engineering, and biotechnology. It will be managed in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, and municipal Departments of Education, the Education Development Centre, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) centres and other educational institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations.

The 33 hectare Nemunas Island in Kaunas – with its central, accessible location, river views and green, open space – was recommended as the site for the planned National Science and Innovation Centre in January 2016 by a Working Group established by the Ministry of Science and Education.