In 10 years, the Einstein Telescope comes online. Its future leaders are training now.

It’s an exciting time to study the cosmos. New discoveries are helping us understand our universe like never before, and next-gen observatories are being built around the world. Their future success requires more than just upgraded tech, however – it also requires the students of today to be ready to become the researchers of tomorrow. 

The Einstein Telescope is a proposed third-generation observatory to find gravitational waves: ripples in spacetime that propagate at the speed of light. The proposed telescope will build on the success of previous detectors in the advanced gravitational wave detector network LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA. The first gravitational wave signal was detected in 2015. 

The Einstein Telescope would be located underground, through three 10-kilometre tunnels. Partners are still deciding its exact location. If the project moves forward, it is expected to be 1,000 times more sensitive than its predecessors and could be operational sometime in the mid-2030s. 

But as scientists prepare for the potential Einstein Telescope and other opportunities to study gravitational wave science, one thing is clear: these technologies will need a skilled workforce.

“Humanity is currently at a breakthrough in our understanding of physics and the universe, and there will be beautiful and important discoveries,” says Gideon Koekoek, Associate Professor of Physics at Maastricht University. “We need to build a program now that provides essential background to today’s students – through their teachers – so that as many people as possible can be part of it.”

Partnership with Perimeter’s outreach team

Koekoek is doing his best to make sure the next generation is ready. His work takes him to LIGO’s Hanford Observatory each summer, where he brings a researcher’s perspective to high school teachers attending the International Physics and Astronomy (IPA) Program. That’s where he first saw Perimeter Institute’s outreach resources in action.

“With gravitational waves, one of the big ideas is general relativity, which isn’t in the high school curriculum,” says Dave Fish, Teacher-in-Residence at Perimeter. “First, educators need to gain enough understanding behind more advanced concepts – that’s why programs like this are so valuable.”

Fish is one of two representatives of Perimeter’s outreach team who travelled to Maastricht in August 2025 for the first-ever gathering of Maastricht Gravitational Inspiration Curriculum (MaGIC) summer school. They brought Perimeter’s decades of expertise to the event, where they led several of the workshops. Under Koekoek’s coordination, the program hosted high school teachers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK, and Australia. 

MaGIC is an independent summer course for teachers focused on the physics of gravitational wave science. Koekoek notes the program is not funded by -- or exclusively focused on -- the Einstein Telescope, but his team uses it as an example of how the science their students are learning can be applied to real-world opportunities down the road.

The MaGIC of play

Koekoek’s philosophy is that advanced physics concepts shouldn’t scare students away with their complexity – the topics just need some reframing to be accessible. It’s a technique Koekoek refers to as ‘reconnecting the dots,’ because students learn how concepts they already know -- such as mass – tie together differently to form an understanding of the physics behind gravitational waves.

A child shouldn’t feel they need to become an expert in physics before they can see a place for themselves in projects like the Einstein Telescope, he says. 

“I would really love for students to connect with material through their teachers, so if they decide later that they don’t want to work in physics, it’s not because it feels too far away or too niche or too difficult,” he says.

To make that a reality, he’s training teachers to bring physics down to Earth for their students.

As part of the MaGIC camp, teachers spent time at the Einstein Telescope Education Centre, a four-storey wing of a science museum that Koekoek was involved in creating, that offers a day program for students. The teachers also got to visit the ETpathfinder  prototype and research facility, to see its development in action.

“We used a combination of theory and direct hands-on experiences to ensure teachers didn’t just hear about the concepts, but that they also played with the exhibits with their own hands,” says Koekoek.

Eliminating barriers to challenging concepts

Giving teachers time to absorb and engage with the gravitational wave science was a major highlight for the participants, says Emma Prins, a PhD candidate at Maastricht University and one of the MaGIC speakers. She works on instrumentation and simulations with the Einstein Telescope Pathfinder and with Koekoek on educational outreach research, and she was also coordinator of the Einstein Telescope Education Centre before starting her PhD research.

“A big challenge for teachers all over the world is finding the time and space to learn new material themselves and then figuring out how to fit it into the curriculum,” says Prins. “Teacher feedback was positive. By the end of the week, they developed confidence in their own understanding of the subject matter, and they could see more clearly how to fit it into their curriculum. Roadblocks had been removed.”

Growing MaGIC

With the program’s foundations in place, Koekoek hopes to branch out to other countries by encouraging “Winter MaGIC” gatherings that use MaGIC materials adapted for language and curricula as required. Local organizers would have the opportunity to travel to the larger summer MaGIC program and lead workshops with a new cohort of teachers. In time, the plan is to develop a European network of teachers similar to Perimeter’s Teacher Network, which trains teachers from across the globe in physics education techniques. In future, MaGIC and Perimeter hope to build a lasting intercontinental collaboration in science education and outreach.

“The children in classrooms across Europe will see physics and engineering in a very exciting context when we show them that what they are learning now is applicable to big advances for humankind through projects like the Einstein Telescope,” says Koekoek. “Humankind is about to see some truly beautiful things, and this is our chance to invite today’s youth to be a part of that.”