The University of New Mexico started Grand Challenges for multi-disciplinary researchers to collaborate on global problems.

The UNM Grand Challenge, which has garnered a lot of success, is a sustainable water resources challenge that works towards cultivating and collaborating across campus.

“It’s incredible to see the depth of understanding, collaboration and innovation that comes from our researchers here at UNM and their community partners,” said Kerry Howe, distinguished professor in the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department and director of the Center for Water and the Environment at UNM. “The researchers, faculty, staff and students have done an outstanding job of sourcing grants and building the vision of what this Challenge will address over the coming years. So far we’ve had a great response to the foundational work.”

Howe said a hurdle for the Grand Challenges was communication.

“We’ve also learned a lot about what we need to do differently — which mainly is that we need to have better communication across campus and branch campuses in order to reach water-focused researchers we haven’t connected with yet,” Howe said. “By getting the word out, we can not only find more areas of impact and study, but also can improve the visibility of this Grand Challenge so that the outcomes can be useful and accessible to communities.”

Teams were convened in February 2019 to begin bringing together interdisciplinary researchers to partner in tackling New Mexico’s challenge of developing sustainable water resources, substance use disorders and successful aging, according to a university release.

The challenge has already secured a $15 million, five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation as one of the group's largest accomplishments in its two years since inception.