Science weeks and festivals in Sweden 1 Science weeks, science festivals and PUS in Sweden Jan Nolin, Fredrik Bragesjö, Dick Kasperowski As in many other European countries, both science festivals and science weeks are present in the landscape of Swedish PUS. This text observes two specific cases, the International Science Festival in Göteborg and The University of Lund’s Science Week. Firstly, however, we will try to define what we mean by and show the difference between science weeks and science festivals. Science Festivals and Science Weeks: A Definition Arguably, there is only one science festival in Scandinavia. However, this depends on how you define a science festival and put it as something apart from a popular science week, something that exists in the other Scandinavian countries as well as in Sweden (and elsewhere). The major difference is that the popular science week is usually based in more than one location: on the national basis a science week involves all the universities, on the regional basis it involves the region around the university. The University of Lund’s science week exemplifies the latter, where scientists travel all around southern Sweden giving lectures adapted to local interests. 1 The science festival, on the other hand, is an initiative located solely in the city of the university, and it therefore enjoys a higher profile. Everybody in Göteborg knows that there is a science festival going on, you cannot miss its activities and the trademark orange colour is everywhere. Another important difference is that the festival is engineered by non-scientists, is more popular and there is an emphasis on the fun aspects of science. The Popular Science Week by comparison is more University driven and serious in tone. Another entity from which the Science Festival should be distinguished from is the Open House, in which a faculty or a university for one day or more shows samples of its activities. This constitutes a local initiative however, which is much smaller in scale and also university driven. 1 “LUM; Lunds universitet meddelar”; (LUM: Information from The University of Lund), nr 10, 1997.