Euroscience Open Forum 2012 opens in Dublin's National Convention Centre on Wednesday and runs until Sunday 15 July.

ESOF 2012 gives scientists from around the world a rare opportunity to meet and present their work to peers, as well as find out about the latest advancements and challenges other disciplines.

Sessions throughout the week will also give would-be scientists and innovators career advice, as well as the opportunity to display their creations to attendees.

Topics due to be covered over the course of the week include climate change, human genetics, space exploration and agriscience.

A full programme for the conference is available on the ESOF 2012 website, with a number of keynote addresses likely to generate significant attention from those in attendance. 

As part of the conference's opening ceremony delegates will hear speeches from President Michael D Higgins, Ireland's Chief Scientific Adviser Prof Patrick Cunningham, EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Euroscience's President Prof Enric Banda and Minister for Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton.

This will be followed by a keynote address by Nobel laureate Jules Hoffmann, who will discuss European research on immune defences.

On Thursday former President Mary Robinson will talk about equity and climate science, while Nobel laureates James Watson and Peter Doherty will also address attendees.

In the evening NASA's Administrator, Maj Gen Charles F Bolden Jr, will talk about the new era of space exploration.

The subject of string theory will be covered by Brian Greene on Friday afternoon, while campaigner Bob Geldof will also give a keynote address.

On Saturday Prof Rolf-Dieter Heuer will talk about the work being conducted at CERN - specifically relating to the Large Hadron Collider. This is one of Prof Heuer's first major addresses since CERN announced that it had likely discovered the Higgs boson particle.

Later that evening Craig Venter will speak to attendees about the genetic code and progress in the area of genome research.

The area of biology will also be addressed by Huanming Yang on Sunday, while Lars Steinmetz will talk about the road from genomics to personal medicine.

Pearse Lyons will give the final keynote of the conference, telling attendees about the building of a billion-dollar business.

RTÉ will be reporting on ESOF 2012 throughout the week, with coverage taking place on radio and television from tomorrow.

RTÉ.ie will also be covering the forum each day, with updates available online or through the RTÉ News Now app.