Indiana University to Invest $300 Million in Grand Challenges Research Program

The program will be devoted to solving the planet's most challenging problems.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • linkText
  • Email
(TNS) -- Indiana University will invest at least $300 million during the next five years in a new research program designed to develop transformative solutions to world problems. Titled the Grand Challenges research program, it will fund up to five large-scale research projects that will be selected through a competitive review process, the university announced Wednesday.

Applications are being sought from IU faculty, including professors at the regional campuses such as IU South Bend.

Applications are being sought for projects designed to address major challenges, such as global water supplies, the availability of energy, curing infectious diseases, climate change and handling big data. The research projects should include catalyzing collaborative and interdisciplinary research, as well as partnerships with community organizations, industry and government.

The first two Grand Challenge grants are expected to be funded starting in fall 2016. IU plans to fund three to five projects between now and the university's bicentennial in 2020.

“As one of the nation’s leading research universities, Indiana University has a special opportunity — and responsibility — to drive large-scale research, discovery and innovation to help address some of the most pressing challenges facing our state, nation and world today,” IU President Michael A. McRobbie said in a statement.

Faculty members will be encouraged to work with colleagues across disciplinary lines, across campus borders and with researchers at Purdue University.

©2015 the South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Ind.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • linkText
  • Email