About Grand Challenges
Complex Challenges — Innovative Solutions
Water scarcity. Poverty. Energy dependence. Global pandemics. Climate change. These complex and challenging environmental problems are broadly understood to be among the most pressing issues of the 21st century.
With a bold commitment to providing leadership and solutions for a globally connected world, the Grand Challenges Program is an ambitious and broadly inclusive University initiative designed to tackle complex and vexing global environmental problems by fully integrating the research and teaching missions of the University. The program engages faculty from disparate disciplines with postdoctoral fellows and students at all levels of the Princeton University community to examine the scientific, technical, puplic policy, and human dimensions of pressing environmental issues.
Program Leadership
Managed by the Princeton Environmental Institute, the Grand Challenges Program was launched in 2007 as a collaboration involving the Princeton Environmental Institute, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Today more than 75 members of the faculty from 29 academic disciplines are participating in research and teaching cooperatives framed around global environmental issues in energy and climate, sustainable development in Africa, and global health and infectious disease. The research enterprise serves as the framework for an extensive association of scholars and supports innovative academic programming that involves students from across the University. The Program fosters a novel approach to developing solutions and a new generation of global leaders.
Grand Challenges Research
The Grand Challenges Program is principally organized around three interdisciplinary research cooperatives that are the foundation of an integrated strategy for developing solutions and leadership in energy and climate, sustainable development in Africa and global health and infectious disease.
Funding is available for faculty seeking to pursue Grand Challenges-based research and curriculum development and for students who wish to engage in Grand Challenges research and independent study with connections to targeted themes. Faculty seeking to redirect their research activities to address dimensions of the energy, development and health challenges may apply for seed funding as part of campus wide Call for Proposal process, administered annually.
Grand Challenges Education
The Grand Challenges Program provides multiple opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to develop their understanding of complex issues in energy, development, and health themes. An extensive network of courses has been identified in each of the three focal themes including offerings within the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and humanities divisions. Course related fieldwork, hands on laboratory exercises, an extensive internship program, and support for independent field research are part of the Grand Challenges Program’s commitment to foster experiential learning and exposure to cutting edge research.
Program Sponsors
The Grand Challenges Program is being implemented with support from the High Meadows Foundation and with resources of the Princeton Environmental Institute. The Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation provides principle support for the Siebel Energy Challenge. The Grand Challenges Program is administered by the Princeton Environmental Institute.
