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Grand Challenges

ARHU Faculty Awarded Grand Challenges Grants
2/16/23

By ARHU Staff

In support of programs, initiatives and projects designed to impact enduring and emerging societal issues, the University of Maryland’s Grand Challenges Grants Program has awarded $30 million in funding to 50 projects and 185 faculty members across every school and college on campus. Among them, ARHU faculty are the recipients of one Institutional Grant, three Impact Awards, four Team Project Grants and one Individual Project Grant.

ARHU faculty are partnering with colleagues across campus to focus on groundbreaking and impactful research on topics including racial and social justice, education, pandemic preparedness and ethical technologies. Their work will shape the future of our community, state, nation and world.

Grand Challenges Grants with ARHU faculty involvement are outlined below. Please visit each project page for comprehensive details and a full list of participating faculty.

INSTITUTIONAL GRANT (up to $1M per year for 3 years of funding): 

Maryland Initiative for Literacy & Equity (MILE): seeks to transform and integrate practices in education, speech pathology, library sciences, and parent/family engagement through streamlined and cutting-edge models of professional development and community outreach. (Colleges Represented: College of Education (EDUC), ARHU, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS), College of Information Studies (INFO), School of Public Policy (SPP))

Principal Investigator (PI): Donald Bolger (EDUC)

ARHU Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs): 

Kira Gor, Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Colin Phillips, Professor, Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, Department of Linguistics; Director, Language Science Center

Juan Uriagereka, Professor, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Department of Linguistics

Learn more: research.umd.edu/mile

IMPACT AWARDS (up to $250K per year for 2 years of funding): 

Urban Equity Collaborative: seeks to strengthen community-based institutions and the work of community activists around issues of urban inequality. (Colleges Represented: School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (ARCH), ARHU, School of Public Health (SPHL))

PI: Willow Lung-Amam (ARCH)

ARHU Co-PI: Nancy Raquel Mirabal, Associate Professor, Department of American Studies

Learn more: research.umd.edu/urbanequity

Pandemic Preparedness Institute (PPI): integrates a broad array of social and behavioral sciences to learn from COVID-19 and other disasters to better prepare for future public health emergencies. (Colleges Represented: SPHL, ARHU, BSOS, EDUC, INFO, Philip Merrill College of Journalism (JOUR))

Co-PI: Cynthia Bauer (SPHL) 

ARHU Co-PI and team members: 

Brooke Fisher Liu (Co-PI), Professor, Department of Communication

Anita Atwell Seate, Associate Professor, Department of Communication

Carina Zelaya, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication

Learn more: research.umd.edu/ppi

Values-Centered Artificial Intelligence: aims to promote the development of AI in a way that is not only ethical, but that advances human well-being more generally. (Colleges Represented: College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS), ARHU, Robert H. Smith School of Business (BMGT), BSOS, EDUC, INFO, JOUR, SPHL) 

PI: Hal Daumé III (CMNS)

ARHU Co-PI: John Horty, Professor, Department of Philosophy

Learn more: research.umd.edu/vcai

TEAM PROJECT GRANTS (up to $500K per year for 3 years of funding):

Africa Through Language and Area Studies (ATLAS): will establish a central focal point for the study of African languages, history and contemporary issues in the UMD community with the goal of increasing the understanding of the African continent and its growing global influence. (Colleges Represented: ARHU, BSOS) 

ARHU PI: Miranda Abadir, Second Language Acquisition, National Foreign Language Center

Learn more: research.umd.edu/atlas

Music Education for All: aims to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, VAIolin, that will democratize music education. (Colleges Represented: ARHU, CMNS) 

ARHU PI: Irina Muresanu, Associate Professor, School of Music

Learn more: research.umd.edu/music-ai

Fostering Inclusivity Through Technology (FIT): will develop a video-calling platform that promotes mutual understanding by highlighting team sentiment, building rapport with strangers, connecting past and current topics in conversations, and unobtrusively identifying and resolving misunderstandings. (Colleges Represented: BSOS, ARHU, BGMT, CMNS, A. James Clark School of Engineering (ENGR), INFO) 

PI: Yi Ting Huang (BSOS)

ARHU Co-PI: Shevaun Lewis, Assistant Research Professor and Assistant Director, Language Science Center

Learn more: research.umd.edu/fit

Anti-Black Racism Initiative: seeks to build upon the state of Maryland’s legacy of racial equity and social justice and will position the University of Maryland as a leading anti-Black racist institution through three strategic and institutional initiatives that will amplify the new anti-Black racism (ABR) minor. (Colleges Represented: BSOS, ARHU, EDUC, SPHL)

PI: Jeanette Snider (BSOS)

ARHU Co-PIs: 

John Drabinski, Professor, African American Studies and English, Department of English

Psyche Williams-Forson, Professor and Chair, Department of American Studies

Learn more: research.umd.edu/abri

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT GRANT (up to $50,000 per year for 3 years): 

Human Rights Politics and Policies: Lessons from Latin America: two conferences, three articles and an edited volume that provides a definitive history of human rights in Latin America and corrects overly broad criticisms of human rights movements made by scholars who work on the United States and Europe. (College Represented: ARHU) 

Karin Rosemblatt, Professor and Director of the Center for Historical Studies, Department of History

Learn more: research.umd.edu/human-rights-latin-america

‘Meaningful, Tangible, Real-world Impact’
12/6/22

By Chris Carroll 

 

In the University of Maryland's new $30 million Grand Challenges Grants program, more potentially world-changing ideas will now get the chance to thrive.

 

Besides awarding three major institutional grants to UMD researchers (who will receive 100% matches from their academic units) to work toward establishing new research institutes, centers or academic units, university leaders have decided to grab the opportunity to fund other semifinalists in the category as well.

 

Jennifer King Rice speaks at podiumPhoto by Stephanie S. Cordle

“We have nine semifinalists, and we have to narrow it down to three—but we don’t want to lose any of these incredibly promising, compelling ideas for addressing the world’s biggest challenges,” Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice said.

The new Grand Challenge Impact Awards—up to $200,000 per year for two years with some additional matching from colleges—will be announced along with institutional and project grants (both individual and team-based) near the start of the Spring 2023 semester.

To address the world’s top challenges, from racial equity to pandemic preparedness to climate change, the university will invest up to $30 million in the grant program: Institutional winners will be awarded a total of $3 million over three years, including the college or school match, with up to 10 team project grants and 50 individual project grants each receiving total amounts of $1.5 million and $150,000, respectively.

Rice spoke to Maryland Today to provide an update on the selection process and explain how the program will strengthen research in every UMD college and school—and potentially benefit all of humanity.

What’s the status of the winner selection process?
We received 24 submissions for institutional grants by the deadline in July, and in September we narrowed that down to nine. In early November, those project teams made presentations to campus leaders including President (Darryll J.) Pines, myself and a number of key administrators at the university who could both help inform the decision on the finalists and also be instrumental in helping find additional sources of revenue for the projects, whether it’s from state or federal agencies, or from foundations and philanthropic sources. Now we’re in the process of narrowing this down to three winners. The other six projects will be offered Grand Challenge Impact Awards.

There were also 111 team and individual investigator project grant proposals submitted by the deadline in early October. At the end of January, we’ll announce the final awardees in all the categories.

What has most impressed you when you look at the full scope of the proposals?
Scope is exactly what I was going to say; I was impressed and fascinated by the range of topics covered. The president and I anticipated climate change-related proposals and projects addressing pandemic preparedness, but there were other compelling topics that we didn’t expect, like one addressing literacy and equity, and another focused on values-centered artificial intelligence.

This range of “big ideas” really underscores the importance of using this sort of crowdsourcing approach to accelerating solutions to the grand challenges of our time, which is a key element of the university’s new strategic plan.

How is this grant program unique?
Other universities that have introduced grand challenge initiatives have tended to focus on priorities identified by the administration, rather than leveraging the creativity and innovation in the academic community. Our approach that held multiple levels of grant competitions provided a mechanism for members of the community to bring their biggest and best ideas forward. The ideas all come from the faculty and staff, and all of our colleges and schools are represented. If you look at some of the institutional grant finalists, they’re representing upward of six or seven different colleges. That’s very powerful and reflects the type of interdisciplinary collaboration required to address these complex and enduring challenges.

We purposefully put an emphasis on working across disciplines and bringing people together to break down the silos that can develop at any institution. We also prioritized projects that provide innovative and new opportunities for students’ learning. After all, education is our core mission, and we want to prepare the next generation of leaders who will continue to take on complex and pressing problems.

The Grand Challenge Grants program was designed to advance key elements of our university strategic plan, Fearlessly Forward, which calls for investing in faculty, students, staff, alumni and partner capacity to work across disciplines to take on these enduring challenges and contribute in meaningful ways to the public good.

What’s the committee looking for? What sets a proposal apart?
Impact. The whole idea of these Grand Challenge Grants is to create meaningful, tangible, real-world impact on our communities and our society. One of the questions that we asked all of our groups was, “If this project is successful, in 10 years, what will have changed in our communities and in our world as a result of the work that this team is doing?”

We want to leverage the incredible contributions and expertise of our faculty, and enable that to be the building blocks for accelerating transformative change.

How might this transform things at UMD?
These projects—the institutional grants, the impact awards and the project grants—will advance UMD as a leader among universities committed to advancing the public good through our work. These grants will foster collaborations that build on all the important foundational science and humanistic work already taking place on campus to amplify our impact on the world.

 

9 Multidisciplinary Projects, Initiatives to Contend for Millions in Grand Challenges Grants
9/27/22

Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice and Vice President for Research Gregory F. Ball sent the following email today to faculty and staff:

It is with great enthusiasm and excitement that we provide this update regarding the Grand Challenges Grants program, which will provide up to $30 million in institutional investments to fund initiatives and projects designed to accelerate solutions to society’s largest and most complex problems.

In response to the call for proposals for Grand Challenges Institutional Grants, 24 letters of intent (LOIs) were submitted, involving 210 faculty and well over 100 staff from all 12 colleges and schools and several campus divisions. The proposed projects address critical issues such as climate change, literacy, democracy, sustainable environments, pandemic preparedness, and many others. Upon completion of the review process, nine proposals for Institutional Grants were selected to move forward to the next phase:

Maryland Initiative for Literacy & Equity (MILE)
PI: Donald Bolger (EDUC); Co-PIs: Colin Phillips, Juan Uriagereka, Kira Gor (ARHU); Rochelle Newman, José Ortiz, Nan Ratner (BSOS); Elizabeth Bonsignore (INFO); Jade Wexler, Jason Chow, Jeff MacSwan, Melinda Martin-Beltran, Maggie Peterson, Jennifer Turner, Drew Fagan, Kellie Rolstad, Rachel Romeo, Ebony Terrell Shockley, Ayanna Baccus, Christy Tirrell-Corbin, Susan De La Paz (EDUC)

Making the World of Digital Technologies Accessible for People With Disabilities
PI: Jonathan Lazar (INFO); Co-PIs: Paul T. Jaeger, J.Bern Jordan, Hernisa Kacorri, Amanda Lazar, Elizabeth Zogby (INFO); Ana Palla (DIT)

Center for Critical Urban Studies
PI: Willow Lung-Amam (ARCH); Co-PIs: Nancy Raquel Mirabal (ARHU), Devon Payne-Sturges (SPHL)

Addressing Climate Challenges for a Sustainable Earth
PI: Ellen Williams (CMNS); Co-PIs: Tatiana Loboda (BSOS); Timothy Canty, Sumant Nigam, James Farquhar (CMNS)

Pandemic Preparedness, Response, Management and Resilience Institute
PI: Sandra Quinn (SPHL) Co-PIs: Cynthia Baur, Donald Milton, Neil Sehgal (SPHL); Jelena Srebric (ENGR); Brooke Liu (ARHU); Spyridon Marinopoulos (UHC)

Global FEWture: Advancing Transformative Food-Energy-Water Solutions to Ensure Community Resilience in a Changing Climate
PI: Amy Sapkota (SPHL); Co-PIs: Yael Mishael (University of Jerusalem); Dina Borzekowski, Rachel Goldstein, Rianna Murray, Leena Malayil (SPHL); Shirley Micallef, Stephanie Lansing (AGNR); Gili Marbach-Ad, Xin-Zhong Liang (CMNS); Jennifer Cotting (ARCH); Allen Davis (ENGR); Thurka Sangaramoorthy (BSOS)

Center of Excellence in Microbiome Sciences
PI: Mihai Pop (CMNS); Co-PI: Stephanie Yarwood (AGNR)

Institute For Democracy Research, Education, and Civic Action
PI: Lena Scott (EDUC); Co-PIs: Michael Hanmer (BSOS); Sarah Oates, Rafael Lorente, Tom Rosenstiel (JOUR); Paul Brown, Nathan Dietz (SPP); Luke Butler, Doug Lombardi, Sarah McGrew, Lucas Payne Butler (EDUC)

Human-Centered AI Institute
PI: Hal Daumé III (CMNS); Co-PIs: Jordan Boyd-Graber, Huaishu Peng, Marine Carpuat (CMNS); Joel Chan, Hernisa Kacorri, Susannah Paletz, Katie Shilton (INFO); Eric Hoover (BSOS); Jing Liu (EDUC); Debra Shapiro (BMGT)

We want to thank each of the teams that took the time to submit a proposal for the Grand Challenges Institutional Grants. The review process was comprehensive. Each LOI was reviewed and evaluated based on the proposed initiatives' targeted grand challenge, potential for societal impact, scalability, measurability, and interdisciplinary collaboration with key partners and stakeholders. The high quality of the LOI submissions and the broad range of Grand Challenges initiatives that were proposed made the selection process very difficult.

The next step in the application process requires all nine teams to participate in a Grand Challenges Accelerator workshop to further refine their ideas. Teams will then develop a presentation for university leadership later this fall. Funding will be awarded in January to selected proposals, which could each receive up to $3 million in total support over the next three years.

The deadline for Team and Individual Project Grant proposals has been extended to Oct. 10. These grants will provide funding for teams and individuals to engage in innovative and impactful research, scholarship and creative activities designed to address grand challenges in service to humanity.

One major commitment in the University of Maryland Strategic Plan, Fearlessly Forward: In Pursuit of Excellence and Impact for the Public Good is to take on humanity's grand challenges. We look forward to supporting these important initiatives that demonstrate our capabilities to take on the greatest challenges of our time and move our state, nation, and world Fearlessly Forward.

Sincerely,

Jennifer King Rice
Senior Vice President and Provost
She/Her/Hers

Gregory F. Ball
Vice President for Research
He/Him/His

Grand Challenges: Team and Individual Project Grants Final Proposal Deadline
Friday, September 30, 2022 - 5:00 PM

Our office is eager to provide you with guidance and support through the entire application process. All ARHU Grand Challenges applicants should complete the Intent to Submit Form as soon as possible. Because these are significant, multi-year grants, w

GRAND CHALLENGES: INSTITUTIONAL GRANTS FINAL DEADLINE
Friday, July 01, 2022 - 5:00 PM

The University of Maryland invites Grand Challenges Grant proposals from the faculty to forge new and creative institutional initiatives to help address some of the most pressing and vexing societal challenges of our time. 

Grand Challenges: Project Grants Internal ARHU Deadline
Tuesday, August 30, 2022 - 5:00 PM

Are you thinking of applying for UMD's Grand Challenges Grant Opportunity?

Grand Challenges: Institutional Grants Internal ARHU Deadline
Wednesday, June 01, 2022 - 5:00 PM

Are you thinking of applying for UMD's Grand Challenges Grant Opportunity?

Grand Challenges Grants Program
4/21/21

Dear Faculty and Staff,

The University of Maryland takes on humanity's grand challenges, setting forth an ambitious agenda and vision to move our institution fearlessly forward in the pursuit of excellence and impact for the public good. Our university is a world-class institution with ideas, interests and capabilities that can profoundly impact and improve our communities and the world. This has been true throughout our history, and will continue into our future as a strategic commitment in Fearlessly Forward: the University of Maryland Strategic Plan.

We are pleased to announce the Grand Challenges Grants Program - the largest and most comprehensive program of its type ever introduced at our university. Up to $30 million in institutional investments will be available to fund programs, initiatives and projects designed to impact enduring and emerging societal issues, such as climate change, social injustice, global health, education disparities, poverty, and threats to our democracy.

The Grand Challenges Grants Program has two distinct components:

  • Grand Challenges Institutional Grants will provide funding to develop new institutional structures (interdisciplinary institute, major center, or school; or a new public-private partnership/consortia, etc.) that catalyze cross-disciplinary collaborations around a grand challenge focus or theme.
  • Grand Challenges Project Grants will provide funding for innovative and impactful research, scholarship, and creative activities designed to address grand challenges in service to humanity.

Today we are releasing the Request for Proposals (RFPs) for both the Institutional Grants and the Project Grants, and we invite applications that outline new and creative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Grand Challenges Grants Program can register at go.umd.edu/gcinfo to attend an online information session scheduled for April 26 at 10:30 a.m.

We are so excited to partner with units across campus and can't wait to see how the proposals generated through this program move our campus, state, nation and world fearlessly forward.

Sincerely,

Jennifer King Rice
Senior Vice President and Provost
She/Her/Hers

Gregory F. Ball
Vice President for Research
He/Him/His

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