Futures 2026-27: Bold ideas, better tomorrows

Building on the success of nine previous FUTURES festivals (2018 – 2025), our aim for FUTURES 2026-27: Bold Ideas, Better Tomorrows is to celebrate local research and innovation that has a global impact. A well-established consortium of regional partners, including three universities and popular visitor attractions, will ensure that a mixture of in-person and digital events make our programme inclusive and accessible, bringing research to a large audience across the West of England, centred around the major cities of Bristol and Bath. Activities will inspire curiosity, demystify research, and involve citizens as active collaborators, and an extensive Researchers at Schools programme will inspire and inform both pupils and teachers. A large and very diverse population across the region will become more aware of researchers’ impact on society and everyday lives, and of the impact of European research funding on the prosperity of our region and beyond. Overall, at least 88,000 people will engage with the research of at least 275 researchers, and our Awareness Raising campaign will reach at least 1.6 million people.