i2Planet: an activity aimed at collaboration and innovation at CERN IdeaSquare

IdeaSquare hosts interdisciplinary teams of students from universities all over the world, using emerging deep tech from CERN and other research hubs in Europe to find new applications in the realm of the UN SDGs. Combining the need for novel methodologies identified at IdeaSquare with CERN’s mandate for fundamental research, we came up with a radically different approach of looking at the grand challenges we face on Earth today: i2Planet. In this approach, teams are asked to establish a new society on an exoplanet, while challenging their assumptions, and understanding issues in systemic ways.