# EcoWell- A planet in a plate.

> **NIH NIH R44** · AMELIA TECHNOLOGIES, LLC · 2024 · $274,458

## Abstract

Identifier: 1410957 EcoWell- A planet in a plate.
Project Summary
Global climate change is the most important issue humanity has faced. While this has been acknowledged by
scientists for years, educating the younger generation is paramount. The importance of teaching scientific data
interpretation has recently come to the forefront, with the emergence of polarizing social issues such as
vaccination. Similarly, environmental climate change is a contentious concept that requires the understanding of
climate data, projections, and mitigation strategies. Yet, a major frustration of educators, scientists and policy
makers surrounds the difficulty of getting effective, evidence-based learning approaches into widespread use in
the classroom. Implementing inquiry-based activities has in the past proved problematic because of the
complexity involved for the educator. Our proposal addresses this problem and the lack of innovative product
offering in climate education. The revolutionary EcoWell™ platform consists of hardware, dedicated curriculum
material and supporting infrastructure. The EcoWell™ is a small bench-top unit that converts a generic six-well
plate into six separate micro-incubators able to mimic aspects of climate change including global warming and
the greenhouse effect and terrestrial and aquatic pollution. Using the intuitive touchscreen interface, students
will be able to implement automated experimental protocols, download data and follow in-depth instructional
videos reducing burden on the educator. The EcoWell™ fully integrated system can be used to grow a range of
biological materials under different environmental conditions, in a single low-cost unit and that has numerous
applications in a range of core STEM subjects.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10822384
- **Project number:** 1R44ES036060-01
- **Recipient organization:** AMELIA TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Brian Ell
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $274,458
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-04-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10822384

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10822384, EcoWell- A planet in a plate. (1R44ES036060-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10822384. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*