Join to celebrate the International Day of Scientific Culture 2025

Those of us who work in science centres and museums are clear about the importance of science and technology both for the development of societies and for people's daily lives. It is also clear to us that the lack of critical thinking and scientific literacy widens the gap in development opportunities for some people compared to others. While many individuals and institutions around the globe continuously contribute substantially to strengthening the scientific culture of citizens, more needs to be done to make it broad, strong and inclusive. People need to be scientifically literate and societies need a scientifically literate citizenry. Talking about it and making it visible is the aim of the International Day for Scientific Culture.

The International Day for Scientific Culture (IDSC) is celebrated every year on 28 September (in commemoration of the date of the first broadcast of Carl Sagan's popular TV series ‘Cosmos’), through a wide variety of face-to-face and virtual activities that aim to highlight the role of science and technology in society and the importance of people to engage with science. This 2025 will mark the sixth edition of the IDSC.

We therefore invite your institution to join in the celebration of the International Day for Scientific Culture. You can watch the short video on the IDSC 2024, which reports on the participation of 283 organisations from 33 countries in five continents, including 10 international organisations, which carried out 462 activities aimed at different audiences: https://youtube.com/shorts/3QqZx-JqAxg?si=AHshbGYPoKjFZpx5

How to participate

Institutions, as well as individuals, can celebrate the IDSC through the realization of one or more activities consistent with their respective missions and functions, which are aimed at:

• disseminating the concept of scientific culture,
• highlighting its importance in today's world,
• promoting the integration of science as part of citizen culture,
• highlighting the need for citizens in general (including politicians, educators, social and business leaders, etc.) to be scientifically literate.

Activities can be organised by a single institution or by a group of several institutions. We invite you to register them in the following form to become part of the international report: https://forms.gle/CRoMWF5axfwhb3tu8

There are several resources on the celebration site to support the dissemination of your activities, using the graphic identity of the 2025 IDSC. In: https://www.somedicyt.org.mx/divulgacion/dicc/idsc#materiales, you will find:

• IDSC logos to apply to your digital resources (Spanish, English, Portuguese and French)
• A short promotional video of the celebration and a GIF (English and Spanish).

For more details about the celebration in general and on previous editions of the event, please visit the following website: https://www.somedicyt.org.mx/divulgacion/dicc/idsc

IDSC Promoting Committee