Programme to imagine ‘big if true’ scientific visions arrives in the EU

16 Dec 2025 | News

In Berlin, technologists pitch programmes that could create whole new industries, even if some ideas sound “crazy”

Could humans learn from the Arctic ground squirrel, which can hibernate with sub-zero body temperatures for weeks at a time? Photo credits: PhotoSpirit / BigStock

Human hibernation enabling interstellar travel. Genetically engineered mitochondria powered by light that could slow human ageing. Automated bioreactors orbiting the earth, producing cells and tissues in zero gravity. 

These were some of the ten sometimes “crazy” sounding projects pitched on December 10 in Berlin as part of a new initiative to train researchers and start-up founders to imagine and then create ambitious new vistas of science and technology. 

This year is the first time the Big if True Science Accelerator, set up by the US-based Renaissance Philanthropy, has trained a cohort of scientists based in the EU

The non-profit organisation, which tries to