The quasi-biennial oscillation is the dominant mode of variability in the tropical stratosphere. The existing observations show a sequence of downward propagating equatorial jets with an average cycle length of 28 months. Only once, in 2016, this regular pattern was disrupted. Based on the understanding of the QBO mechanism and the expected changes in tropical convection, tropical waves and the upwelling in the tropical stratosphere, this probably will change in the future. But so far, no answer could be found to the question how the QBO will change in the future. The reason lies in the difficulty to represent convection and gravity waves by means of parameterizations, as done so far in climate models. To overcome this, we have started a new approach relying on high resolution so that deep convection is simulated explicitly and gravity waves are resolved, i.e. no parameterizations are used for convection and gravity wave effects. A preparatory study as well as first results from idealized experiments will be presented.