The Genoa Science Festival, ‘Festival della Scienza’, first launched in 2003, is an international and global event comprising a broad programme inspired by the most pressing issues of the day. Theatrical performances and new exhibitions explore the intersection between Art and Science, with a particular focus on new breakthroughs in advanced research and researchers from developing countries. Every year, guests from all over the world come together to create an atmosphere of lively scientific exchange.

The Festival provides an important platform to communicate about science and promote it on an international scale, and a chance for researchers, schools, families and anyone interested in the subject to meet. Lectures, exhibitions, workshops, special events and shows allow visitors an innovative and engaging approach to the theme. The Festival will explore new ways of engaging with development and good practices in the field of environmental sustainability, new technologies, and the relationship between communities, territories and cultural and natural development.

The United Nations is a guest of honour at the Festival. The ongoing support of UN Agencies - FAO, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNIDO – to the event is vital in discussing these important themes that lie at the heart of their mission and in carrying forward the issues explored by EXPO Milan 2015, which will come to a close at the end of October. From 23 October, the Festival will be hosting the ‘Behind Food Sustainability’ exhibition, conceived by the UNESCO Office in Venice in the context of EXPO 2015 as part of a broad programme of initiatives that deal with many aspects of sustainable development.

The exhibition, which has travelled from Turin where it was on display as part of the 3rd World Forum of Local Economic Development, tackles the important role of cultural and natural heritage and community participation in achieving food sustainability, in line with the EXPO 2015 theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. The relationship between communities, food, territories and their cultural and natural diversity plays a key role in feeding our planet, as illustrated by experiences from UNESCO networks around the world, which can help us to address some of the main challenges to food sustainability. The exhibition will be on display until 1 November 2015 at the Science Festival in Genoa, where visitors can view it in the Palazzo della Borsa, Sala del Telegrafo.

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As well as contributing to the United Nations’ participation in Milan, “The Zero Hunger Challenge – United for a Sustainable World”, UNESCO is taking part in the Venice to EXPO 2015 initiative with a broad programme of events in and around Venice and in UNESCO sites and territories throughout Italy.

UNESCO’s contribution to EXPO 2015 was made possible by the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice (Italy).