The Grand Jam 2026
The Grand Jam isn't built around answers. It's built around questions we haven't finished working out yet.
Going further. Sustaining life. Protecting what we depend on. Learning when answers stop working. Deciding what to do with the power to transform the world.
Over three days, these questions run through the projects, the conversations, the teams' decisions, and the encounters between generations.
They don't belong to a single discipline. They don't belong to a conference.
They belong to all of us.
01
How far can we go
How do we move forward when the map doesn't exist yet?
For centuries, moving forward meant crossing oceans, exploring unknown territories, or leaving our planet for the first time.
Today, moving forward also means creating what doesn't exist yet.
Designing under uncertainty. Taking risks. Crossing disciplines. Cooperating when no one has all the answers.
Mars takes that question to the extreme. But the question doesn't belong only to space.
It belongs to anyone who has ever tried to make possible something that seemed impossible.
Exploration · science · engineering · missions · cooperation · risk · discovery
It's not just about knowing how far we can go. It's about discovering what we'll need to learn to get there.
02
What keeps us alive
What does a person really need to live, and not just survive?
Imagine six people living for years far from Earth.
They need oxygen. Water. Food. Energy. A place to shelter.
But very soon another question appears: what do they need to keep being human?
Health. Trust. Privacy. Relationships. Purpose. Wellbeing.
Thinking about life away from Earth forces us to separate what's essential from what we normally take for granted.
And in doing so, it forces us to look again at our own life here.
Health · habitat · behaviour · nutrition · human factors · autonomy · wellbeing
Surviving keeps a body alive. Living demands much more.
03
What we cannot lose
What do we learn to value once it stops being infinite?
On Mars, every litre of water counts. Every resource counts. Every decision about energy, food or territory has consequences.
Nothing can be treated as unlimited.
For too long we've lived on Earth as if the systems that sustain our lives were inexhaustible.
They aren't.
Soil. Water. Biodiversity. Food. Energy. Climate.
Earth Element 2026 turns that reality into a concrete question: how do we design life within real limits?
Earth · soil · water · energy · climate · biodiversity · regeneration · resilience
Sometimes we need to imagine another planet to understand the value of this one.
04
When you don't know
How do you learn, create and decide when no one has the answer?
For a long time, education trained us to answer known questions.
The coming generation will face something different.
Artificial intelligence. Professions that don't exist yet. Accelerating technological change. Problems without a single solution. Decisions made with incomplete information.
Knowing will still matter. But knowing won't be enough anymore.
You'll have to learn. Unlearn. Ask. Experiment. Get it wrong. Collaborate. Start again.
At Mars Challenge, not having the answer yet doesn't mean you've failed.
It means the process has just begun.
Learning · creativity · education · AI · skills · talent · leadership · future of work
The future won't belong to whoever has all the answers. It will belong to whoever knows what to do without them.
05
Who decides
What do we do with the power to change the world?
We've never had so much capacity to transform our environment.
Artificial intelligence. Biotechnology. Robotics. New energy systems. Space exploration.
Every new capability opens up possibilities.
And also a question technology can't answer for us: should we do it?
Who decides. Under what criteria. Who benefits. Who takes the risk. Who answers for the consequences.
Because creating something doesn't end when it works.
What we do with it matters too.
AI · technology · industry · ethics · public policy · governance · cooperation · agency
The future won't be defined only by what we can build. It will also be defined by what we decide to do with it.
These five questions aren't five scenarios or five agenda blocks.
They run through The Grand Jam.
A project can start talking about soil and end up raising a question about artificial intelligence.
A conversation about space exploration can turn into a question about human health.
A technological idea can end up opening a dilemma about power, access or responsibility.
A conversation about education can end up questioning how we want to live.
Because real problems don't come organised by discipline.
Neither does The Grand Jam.
The teams arrive with projects.
The Global Voices arrive with experience.
The mentors arrive with questions.
The judges arrive with judgement.
The institutions arrive with responsibility.
Over three days, everyone steps into the same conversations from different places. Not to find a single answer. To put better questions, better decisions and better ways of building together to the test.
The answers are still to be built.
Getafe · 3–5 November 2026