Throughout September and October, the Office of Research and Economic Development hosted weekly community-building events on each of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Grand Challenge themes.
Total attendance across the events was more than 600 faculty, staff and students. Where available, recordings and slides from the community-building conversations are posted on the Grand Challenges website.
To propel these discussions toward the proposal development process, additional in-person events will help researchers broaden their connections across disciplines and form teams around common goals:
“Humanizing the Grand Challenges: Partnering to Achieve Excellence and Impact,” Nov. 16, 2-4 p.m.. This workshop is designed to help the university community understand opportunities, lessons learned and benefits surrounding reciprocal partnerships among scholars in the arts, humanities, sciences and engineering. Registration is required.
“Centering your Proposal’s DEI Plan in the Diversity Science Literature,” Dec. 9, 2-4 p.m. This interactive workshop will support individuals and teams developing diversity, equity and inclusion plans for proposals — with a focus on the Grand Challenges RFP. Registration is required.
The spring semester will kick off with a three-day Grand Challenges Scoping Workshop, Jan. 11-13, 2022. This event will jumpstart the development of solutions to the university’s Grand Challenges by maximizing diverse expertise and breaking down the portfolio of seven thematic areas into actionable problems and opportunities. Faculty will focus on sparking new ideas and fostering new teams positioned to pursue funding through the Grand Challenges Catalyst Competition. Registration is required.
Faculty are invited to register their areas expertise and identify the grand challenge themes of interest to them by submitting this interest form. This will enable the Office of Research and Economic Development to begin identifying and matching scholars with similar interests.
Finally, faculty and staff interested in exploring cross-disciplinary connections related to the Grand Challenges are invited to participate in a randomized coffee trial. RCTs are used to randomly connect individuals with shared interests. ORED will pair individuals who self-select into the RCT and treat them to coffee. If you would like to participate in the Grand Challenges RCT or learn more about the process, please send an email to grandchallenges@unl.edu.
Visit the Grand Challenges website for more information and related events.
