Grand Challenges Grants 2.0 Confront Status Quo

PRESSING SOCIETAL NEEDS like expanding access to mental health services, heading off pandemics and reducing educational disparities aren’t neatly divided among academic disciplines—and neither is the University of Maryland’s signature initiative to address them.

This summer, UMD announced the awarding of nearly $15 million to support 11 high-impact research projects representing more than 40 disciplines through the Grand Challenges Grants Program.

It’s the next step in an ongoing commitment to channel the university’s research power toward solutions for the public good. In 2023, the first round of grants committed $30 million to 50 projects spanning every college and school—the largest investment of its kind in the university’s history—resulting in almost $100 million in additional external funding.

The largest three-year grants in this round are going to a new network connecting time spent in nature with evidence-based mental health care and an initiative to close knowledge gaps in women’s health across the lifespan. 

All Grand Challenges Grants 2.0 awardees will receive a 50% matching in-kind and/or cash investment from their college or unit.

“These projects exemplify the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to generate new ideas, accelerate discovery and address the grand challenges facing communities in Maryland, across the nation and around the world,” Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice and Vice President for Research Patrick O’Shea said in an announcement in June.