Event: Great Exhibition Road Festival 2026
Date: 6–7 June 2026
Location: Imperial College London, South Kensington
Organised by: Great Exhibition Road Festival
Featuring: Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and Microbial Food Hub and RLA Lab
Food is more than a product we consume. It is connected to trust, identity, affordability, tradition and everyday life. Food is also a language understood by everyone, which means conversations about its future should be open to people of all ages, backgrounds, industries, interests and levels of expertise.
At the beginning of June, the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and the Microbial Food Hub joined the Great Exhibition Road Festival, bringing the science of sustainable food to life through conversations, demonstrations and creative experiences across Imperial College London.
Across three busy days, visitors explored what we might eat during long-duration space missions, discovered the hidden beauty of bioengineering and imagined how sustainable ingredients could shape the future of cooking, cuisine and gastronomy.
Ahead of the Festival, we were also pleased to welcome the UK’s Minister for Science, Lord Patrick Vallance; Marc Lemaître, Director-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission; and Isabell Poppelbaum, EU Deputy Ambassador to the UK, to Imperial College London for a preview of the Festival’s Europe Zone.
Festival highlights
Growing Food in Space
Helen Sharman, the first British person in space, joined Cinzia Klemm, Dr Aqeel Shamsul and Jakub Radzikowski to discuss how microbial fermentation and bioreactors could help create nutritious and enjoyable food during long-duration space missions.
Edible Futures Gallery
Visitors were invited to imagine how sustainable ingredients could reduce land and water use, strengthen food resilience and create new possibilities for food production, both in extreme environments and here on Earth.
Glow and Grow: Illuminating Bioengineering
Visitors explored engineered cells that glow under ultraviolet light and contributed to a collaborative glowing mural, revealing the creativity and hidden beauty behind bioengineering.
Growing Tomorrow’s Meat
At Future Food Live, hosted by the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, audiences had the opportunity to taste innovation in action. Alice Grob and Jason S. L. Yu helped visitors explore the science, sustainability and potential of cultivated meat through Greek-style “Future Chicken” skewers.
A huge thank you to everyone who visited, asked thoughtful questions and helped make the Festival such a success and to all the researchers, chefs, volunteers and collaborators who brought the science to life.