Uppsala Ministry for the Future

Through art forms—such as literature, visual arts, and performing arts—the Uppsala Ministry for the Future aims to promote bold, interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers and societal actors that sparks originality, stimulates new insights, and discovers new ways of researching future societal challenges.

Together with the Department of Business Studies, UUniFI has established a forum and community that brings together researchers, authors, artists, and societal actors to explore solutions to global future challenges.

The initiative is called Uppsala Ministry for the Future and is inspired by the Oxford Ministry for the Future.

Upcoming events

17 November 2026, University Main Building

Looking to the Stars; Science, Fiction and the Power to Shape the Future

Welcome to the second Uppsala Ministry for the Future event, where literature invites us to be curious about what space science and exploration might teach us about our own planet—its fragility, interconnected ecosystems, and the responsibilities that come with the power to transform worlds. On stage: Kim Stanley Robinson and Ulf Danielsson.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people
– American President John F. Kennedy (1962).

Prelude

Humans have always looked to the stars with curiosity, wonder, and ambition. Today, advances in space science and exploration are transforming once-imagined dreams into hypothetical futures that may one day become a reality. The Second Space Age has given rise to an industrial economy in which markets, technology, and power are becoming more intertwined in a complex orbital ecosystem.

By combining visions of the future with societal critique and scrutiny, science fiction has long anticipated and questioned this trajectory. From early visions of space travel to novels such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora and Ulf Danielsson’s works, which explore the vastness and mysteries of space in contrast to the size and fragility of our own planet, authors have explored the promises and perils of terraforming, space colonisation, and becoming a multiplanetary species.

Together with other art forms, literature invites us to be curious about what space science and exploration might teach us about our own planet, in terms of its fragility, interconnected ecosystems, and the responsibilities that come with the power to transform worlds.

Join us on 17 November at 18:30 in the Grand Auditorium of Uppsala University’s main building where we bring these scientific developments and imaginative visions into conversation. As the likelihood of passing various tipping points grows, what began as a quest to explore and inhabit other worlds now invites a new perspective on the one world we already call home.

As we reach towards the stars, can the view from beyond Earth teach us to become better stewards of the planet beneath our feet?

Programme

Date & Time: 17 November 2026 at 18:30–20:30
Venue: Grand auditorium, Uppsala University Main Building

On stage:
Kim Stanley Robinson, acclaimed science fiction writer and author of the bestselling novel The Ministry for the Future, and Ulf Danielsson, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Uppsala University and renowned essayist and public lecturer

The event is open to the public and is free of charge, but you need to register in order to attend. The event will be held in English.

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