The 2023 Cicap Festival (October 13-15, 2023) follows the same path paved by its founder Piero Angela by sharing how we too are doing our part to promote scientific education. Angela founded the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences (CICAP) in 1989, which has continued to not only promote scientific education but to encourage critical thinking and the verification of allegedly scientific disciplines such as parapsychology for over 30 years.

In collaboration with Padua’s University, Municipality and surrounding Province, the festival highlights three key values needed to construct a future in which scientific, civil, and political progress align and proceed in harmony: the value of responsibility, the value of transparency, and the value of facts.

Welcoming an array of guests from the world of research, literature, entertainment and culture, the festival aims to build a shared language capable of meeting the global challenges that await us all but in particular, new generations. Thanks to interviews conducted by the Il Bo Live editorial team, guests such as Paolo Attivissimo, Giulio Boccaletti, Dario Bressanini, Massimo Cirri, Edzard Ernst, Silvio Garattini, Vera Gheno, Marco Malvaldi, Luca Parmitano, Telmo Pievani, Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto), Lorenzo Pregliasco, Andrea Rinaldo, and Antonella Viola will join the festival.

The Festival begins on Friday 13 October at Palazzo Bo with A cosa serve la scienza? , which welcomes guests Helga Nowotny, Professor emeritus of Social Studies of Science at ETH Zurich and founding member of the European Research Council, as well as the current President of Cicap Sergio Della Sala who is a trained Medical Doctor, Clinical Neurologist and Neuropsychologist. On Saturday 14 October, Palazzo Bo hosts Dr. Edzard Ernst who specializes in the study of complementary and alternative medicine.

The Festival also welcomes some 2023 Galileo Prize winning authors, based on their contribution to scientific publications.  On October 13 invited authors include Amedeo Balbi (Su un altro pianeta), Agnese Collino (La malattia da 10 centesimi. Storia della polio e di come ha cambiato la nostra società), Danilo Zagaria (In alto mare. Paperelle, ecologia, Antropocene). On 14 October invited authors include Elisa Palazzi and Sara Moraca (Siamo tutti Greta. Le voci inascoltate del cambiamento climatico), Devis Bellucci (Materiali per la vita. Le incredibili storie dei biomateriali che riparano il nostro corpo).

Admission to these and many other 2023 Cicap Festival events are free by registration only.