On the 25th and 26th of June, ColliderSCIENCE’s Future Forum group and Ignite Futures will hold an innovation lab centred on creative solutions to biodiversity, bringing creativity and science together for young people to give them the skills and confidence to be inventors and change agents in a rapidly changing world.
The lab will bring together six shortlisted teams from Ignite’s UK ArtScience Prize Ravensbourne programme, two top teams from the UK ArtScience Prize Derby cohort, and a group of 36 year-9 students from the Future Forum group comprising students from Kings College Wimbledon School and Ricard’s Lodge High School, Merton.
Students from the UK ArtScience Prize will be taking further their ideas from the earlier stages of the programme: experimenting with prototypes, materials, and making their projects a reality. In a parallel track, students from the Future Forum group will put their creativity, collaboration and curiosity skills to the test over an intensive design process that will look at how biomimetics can inspire innovative art and design ideas in under 48 hours.
Across the course of the lab, graduate designers and scientists will mentor the student teams. Guest speakers from across the disciplines, including artist Phil Coy, will also join to inspire project development. At the end of the two days the student teams will present their projects to a panel of judges, involving art curatorial organisation Invisible Dust, and innovation hub Ogilvy Labs, both of whom are offering unique work experience opportunities over the summer to selected teams.
We’ll be celebrating the achievements of all of the students involved in the UK ArtScience Prize this year along with those participating in the innovation lab, on the evening of the 26th of June. The eventbrite link for the event is here. Please join us for an exhibition of their ideas, a presentation of the prizes, and a drink or two!
We’re very honoured that the Biodiversity Innovation Lab is supported by an UnLtd SPARK award funded by Santander. UnLtd is the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the UK and offers the largest such network in the world. You can find out more about UnLtd on Twitter @Untld #SparkSomeGood