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This paper reflects on the outcomes of a student-centered workshop held during the Indian Ecological Society International Conference, held at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, 12 – 15 November 2024.The students' workshop was a follow-up on the topics developed in the Symposium on “Agriculture, Climate Changes, and Energy Transitions: Building Capacity to Maintain Yields of Innovative Agrifood Systems” held during the conference. Its major purpose was to encourage discussions among conference participants about specific research agendas and potential teaching plans. Students worked in groups of four to five to provide ideas for improving teaching and learning and ideas for future research. They consistently mentioned a need to grasp the practical application of their classroom studies. Most of the research ideas focused on conservation or enhancement of resources used in agriculture and many involved cross-disciplinary topics, such as the expansion of data analysis technologies to promote resilience for agricultural communities. The results parallel the principles outlined as key to a bioeconomy, outlined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 

Climate change agreements force us to explore interconnected social, economic, and energy related transitions needed to combat the effects of anthropogenic activities on the Earth's climate. To help us understand what brought us to where we are today and guide us in our decision-making for tomorrow, we introduce the Energy Regulatory Industrial Complex model (ERIC). ERIC illustrates the transformation of energy from energy sources through to energy services, as in energy flow diagrams, but adds the emissions greenhouse gases from those transformations. ERIC includes the creation of wealth enabled by energy services, innovation that supports advances in science and technology, and activities that maintain and sustain existing systems. Policies and geo-politics can influence each decision and investment stream. At its core, ERIC relies on a firm foundation of education. Using data from the United States and India, we show how ERIC can be used to pinpoint the vulnerabilities and places for interventions in transitioning to a clean energy future.