There are currently two active Café Scientifiques in Norway, one in the capital, Oslo, and another one in the second-largest city, Bergen. They were formed by the cooperation of several institutions and volunteers, first and foremost the British Council, www.Forskning.no, (a Norwegian popular science website), the Research Council of Norway and the Association of Young Scientists. The first Café Scientifique was organized in Oslo by Yerina Rock, a 21 year old inspired by the British cafés. Later that year the Young Scientists organized their first Cafés in Bergen. During 2004 www.Forskning.no became more heavily involved in organizing the Cafés along with British Council, they continued the focus on attracting the best names and best lecturers available for the relevant subjects. The Cafés in Oslo would focus primarily on contemporary issues involving both science and philosophy - like religion in science, or the problems of Holocaust-denial, as well as more traditional scientific issues. The Café in Bergen, however, did not last long, and was dormant until late 2005 when the organizers in Oslo recruited an independent to run the Café in Bergen.

The Cafés in Norway are usually held in bars, starting early in the evening with a 45 minute lecture or debate between two scientist, and after a 15 minute break for drinks and socializing, the floor is opened for questions from the audience and general discussion on the issues. While the open discussion is usually over within 45 minutes, at times the debate will continue for far much longer if the audience is sufficiently engaged. The participants are always encouraged to stay after the event itself is over, and the cafés do sometimes linger on until midnight for those who want to continue discussing the events on their own. While the Oslo Café has had a series of different venues for their events, the current organizers in Bergen has a deal with a popular rock club for free use of the venue for the Café - this arrangement ensures a colourful audience consisting of very different people, not just students, journalists and scientists.

Currently the Oslo Café is in the midst of changing organizers again, as the representative of www.Forskning.no who has been the organizer for most of the Café’s life there is leaving the project, and the Young Scientists will probably take a stronger role in organizing the Cafés in Oslo now. In Bergen we are currently setting up for 2006, after a successful start with one of the world's foremost experts on hypocondria in January. Up coming events for Bergen involves issues like BioEthics, Digital Rights and the Public Domain and even Space Exploration and Quantum Physics.

A lot of hard work by volunteers is always put in to the Café in Norway, and we are blessed with a lot of people who are passionate about the Café and the social aspects of science. And this work is continuing in Oslo and Bergen in 2006, and onwards, and we are very excited about future plans and the great reception we have been given by the audience, the media and the scientific community itself. In the future we hope for a Café to open in Trondheim as well, and create what will be a touring circuit for both Norwegian and foreign lecturers at the Café Scientifiques in Norway.

Kristian A. Bjørkelo (13 March 2006)
Organizer of the Café Scientifique, Bergen