Grand Challenges survey

* 1. University of Wyoming Grand Challenges Initiative


We invite your participation in the University of Wyoming Research Grand Challenges Initiative. 


What is a Research Grand Challenge? Grand Challenges are transdisciplinary research opportunities that address issues of high societal and economic importance to Wyoming, the nation, and the world.


This activity will identify areas where investments in research capacity are needed, where incentives to promote vibrant partnering need to be created, where opportunities to align and identify academic coursework with Grand Challenges should be sought, and where opportunities for Grand Challenge research to have an economic impact are high. Girding all of this is the requirement that Grand Challenge research serves as a powerful platform for student education, and for educational outreach to citizens of Wyoming and the Mountain West. We intend to identify areas for a broad range of research, involving the arts, the humanities, the sciences, engineering, health, education, the professions, and interdisciplinary areas of inquiry. 


We wish to invite a broad range of input. In addition to filling out this survey, please also attend a listening session or town hall meeting on campus, to be arranged throughout the fall semester. 


Theme/Problem Statement Form


To get started, please brainstorm three Themes or Problem Statements you consider to be Grand Challenges. At this point, you do not need to have a plan of action or solution in mind. In fact, if you do have a solution we ask that you still work back to find an open-ended description. 


Themes/Problem Statements should be specific and include only one topic. The problem might influence different groups of people, but it should be a single problem. 


Please note: we have listed examples below to get you started, but feel free to be creative and to add problem statements beyond those listed here. 


Theme/Problem Statement examples: 


Education and access to information
Wyoming ranks 4th in the nation in suicide per capita
Big data
Albany County is the poorest county in Wyoming
Health care inequality
Natural resource management, including water and energy policies, in Wyoming and globally, need to be made more sustainable
Mass incarceration
Too few people in rural Wyoming have access to the arts and cultural programming
Climate change
Human biology is becoming more resistant to antibiotics
The quality of democracy, such as inequalities of race, class, and gender
Through artificial intelligence and other advances in technology, jobs that have previously required human labor are now becoming automated, including blue- and white-collar labor. This has implications for the future of work, about access to healthcare, and questions about a universal basic income

In the boxes below, please indicate three Themes or Problem Statements