12 students have volunteered to be part of ECOT, a new case study that focuses on 5 big issues facing our planet in the future, framed as ‘concepts’. ECOT stands for Experimental Class of Tomorrow. The team will tackle the pressing issues of their generation. We aim to harness their enthusiasm and curiosity to help create the next wave of scientists ready to face the challenges head-on.

Inspired by the SPACE10 project, this concept tackles the challenge of growing healthy and sustainable food for a growing global population. Students will investigate how food can be grown sustainably using futureproof recipes to eat better, both for ourselves and for the planet. Table-top hydroponics, mealworm burgers, spirulina bioreactors, and dogless hotdogs are on the menu and could be the new normal, tasty and nutritious.

Inspired by Mike Berners-Lee’s ‘There is no Planet B’ movement, this concept focuses on the climate challenge, specifically through glocal temperature rises, carbon budgets, exponential carbon growth, offshoring carbon, the ‘carbon curve’, the rebound effect, how to keep fossil fuels in the ground, other forms of greenhouse gases, renewable energy and how we can take carbon back out of the atmosphere.