As part of UCL’s bicentenary celebrations, UCL Grand Challenges will bring together researchers, students, innovators and partners from across disciplines for a week of events exploring how collaboration, curiosity and innovation can help shape a better future.
Taking place across 1-5 June 2026, the programme will showcase the power of interdisciplinary thinking in tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while celebrating the people, partnerships and ideas helping to shape UCL’s next 200 years.
From early career researchers to senior academic leaders, the events will create opportunities for the UCL community and partners beyond the university to connect, exchange ideas and spark new collaborations across disciplines.
UCL Grand Challenges Director, Sam Balch, said:
“UCL continues to be a place of brave ideas, interdisciplinary collaboration and extraordinary opportunity. Our events this week will bring together researchers, innovators and partners from across disciplines to spark new conversations, share ideas and explore solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. We’re delighted to invite the UCL community and partners beyond the university to join us for a week of celebration, collaboration and discussion as part of our bicentenary programme.”
Together, the events will showcase how interdisciplinary thinking, curiosity and innovation continue to define UCL’s approach to tackling the complex challenges facing society today and in the future.
Find out more and sign up below.
From Problems to Possibilities: An Interdisciplinary Sandpit
26 May 2026 | Bloomsbury Campus
This event is an opportunity for early career researchers to showcase how their research specialism contributes to UCL Grand Challenges themes, create evidence of impact and practice interdisciplinary working. Develop your critical thinking and innovation skills, increase your cross-disciplinary network, evidence your teamworking and communication skills and learn the sandpit approach to help with future project development. Spaces are limited! To secure your place REGISTER by 22 May, 12pm via Inkpath (Doctoral Researchers) and LibCal (Research Staff)
1-4 June 2026 | UCL East
Innovation Fest 2026 is a four-day challenge, led by UCL Grand Challenges and Students’ Union UCL, where UCL students team up to tackle real-world global issues through social enterprise ideas. Working across disciplines, students will choose a challenge area like climate change, mental health, inequalities or data empowered societies, develop solutions with external partners, and pitch their ideas at a final showcase. It’s a hands-on opportunity to build skills, collaborate, and turn ideas into real impact. REGISTER by 18th May.
Dr Anne Laybourne, Head of Social Impact & Learning, Students’ Union UCL said: “For us, complex problems can only be solved through complex working. This means an imperative to focus on giving students – our future workforce and leaders in climate change and mental health, who will be working in an AI age, with an imperative to reset injustices – the opportunities to learn to work across disciplines as well as from experts beyond the walls of an academic institution. It makes perfect sense for us to work in collaboration with UCL Grand Challenges, as well as colleagues in UCL Innovation & Enterprise, to create Innovation Fest, an exciting opportunity for students to experience working in an interdisciplinary team, on real-world provocations from local social innovators right at the forefront of tackling some of society’s ‘wicked problems’. We are grateful to the UCL Grand Challenges for pump prime funding for this work.”
3 June 2026 | UCL East
Centred around the theme “Building a community with interdisciplinary curiosity”, the Festival of Early Career Researchers will celebrate the vital contribution of emerging researchers across UCL. The festival will create space for Early Career Researchers to build networks, exchange ideas and explore new approaches to challenge-led research. The programme will feature workshops, panel discussions, networking opportunities and a marketplace of support services designed to help researchers develop collaborations across disciplines and career stages. REGISTER
Amy Hong, Head of Academic and Researcher Experience Team said, "We want UCL to be the employer of choice for early career researchers. Supporting our diverse community of researchers to embrace, navigate and succeed in challenge-led, interdisciplinary research is critical for us. This year, our Festival of Early Stage Researchers will dive into the power of interdisciplinarity, showcasing those who successfully navigated this way of working and inspiring the next generation of researchers to follow suit. It’s a great opportunity to connect with like-minded colleagues across UCL and beyond.”
4-5 June 2026 | UCL East & Bloomsbury Campus
The week will conclude with the Tackling Grand Challenges: What works, what’s missing, and what’s next conference, bringing together researchers and sector leaders to reflect on the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex global issues. The conference will explore how universities, policymakers and partners can work together more effectively to drive meaningful change, while examining the opportunities and barriers involved in challenge-led research. Through keynote talks, panel discussions and interactive sessions, attendees will be encouraged to think critically about the future of interdisciplinary collaboration and the role institutions like UCL can play in shaping it. REGISTER
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