45 universities, research centers and institutions opened their doors to make science more understandable and more tangible. More than 650 different events such as exhibitions, fascinating lectures, discussions, guided tours and exciting experiments were presented on the night to inspire both adults and children. The "Nacht des Wissens" was a free event and a shuttle bus service was available for all visitors.

Under the slogan “Education from the cradle to the grave”, Prof. Dr. Inge Blatt and Sarah Frahm presented the aims and structure of the National Educational Panel Study and described, among other things, the multicohort sequence design and the tasks of the pillars and stages. The NEPS will make it possible to describe and analyze long-term developments in educational pathways within theoretically coordinated dimensions called "pillars". Moreover, the NEPS is divided into eight partial studies, called "stages", with a particular focus on critical transitions in educational careers.

Prof. Blatt and Sarah Frahm informed the visitors about the projects of stage 4 at the IFS (“Institute for School-Development Studies”) in Dortmund and also referred to Hamburg’s contribution to stage 4 by reporting on spelling tests conducted in schools. Stage 4 deals with lower secondary schools and the transition to the general or vocational upper secondary level. The audience mostly comprised teacher trainees but also the director of the adult education center in Hamburg, Dr. Hannelore Bastian, was interested in the NEPS. Following the presentation, the students wanted to know more about the study's potential impact on everyday teaching practice in class and in school. It was pointed out that the NEPS data could indeed provide an essential basis for changes in teaching practice because these kinds of data will, for the first time, allow us to get a reliable insight into the trajectories and conditions of lifelong learning - given that many research projects from pedagogics and didactics are going to use NEPS data.