White House Grand Challenges Initiative Cristin Dorgelo Assistant Director for Grand Challenges Office of Science and Technology Policy Executive Office of the President
How White House OSTP Defines Grand Challenges 1. Significant impact in areas of national and global priority 2. Ambitious yet achievable 3. Compelling, motivating, capture the public imagination 4. Goldilocks level of specificity and focus 5. Able to harness innovation and advances in science and technology
We re pursuing grand challenges like making solar energy as cheap as coal or making electric vehicles as affordable as the ones that run on gas. They re ambitious goals, but they re achievable. And we re encouraging companies and research universities and other organizations to get involved and help us make progress. - President Obama April 2, 2013
President Obama s Innovation Strategy Innovation for Sustainable Growth and Quality Jobs Catalyze Breakthroughs for National Priorities Unleash a clean energy revolution Support advanced vehicle technology Drive breakthroughs in health IT Address the grand challenges of the 21 st century Promote Competitive Markets that Spur Productive Entrepreneurship Promote American exports Support open capital markets that allocate resources to the most promising ideas Encourage high-growth and innovation-based entrepreneurship Improve public sector innovation and support community innovation Invest in the Building Blocks of American Innovation Restore American leadership in fundamental research Educate the next generation with 21 st century knowledge and skills while creating a world-class workforce Build a leading physical infrastructure Develop an advanced information technology ecosystem Source: www.whitehouse.gov
Why the Administration is Pursuing Grand Challenges 1. Help solve important economic and societal problems 2. Serve as a North Star for high-impact, multi-disciplinary collaborations and public-private partnerships 3. Create the foundation for the industries and jobs of the future 4. Capture public imagination and increase support for public policies that foster science, technology and innovation 5. Inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs
Current Administration Grand Challenges NIH, DARPA, NSF, and FDA BRAIN Initiative, to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury DOE SunShot Grand Challenge, to make solar energy cost competitive with coal by the end of the decade, and EV Everywhere Grand Challenge, to make electric vehicles that are as affordable as today's gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 10 years NASA s Asteroid Grand Challenge, to find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them USAID s Grand Challenges for Development, including Saving Lives at Birth that catalyzes groundbreaking prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in poor, low resource communities
Private-Sector Grand Challenge Pursuits Google self-driving car (outgrowth of DARPA Challenge) IBM AI that beats Gary Kasparov at chess, Ken Jennings at Jeopardy Watson may create huge commercial markets Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize Elon Musk/SpaceX humanity should become a multi-planetary species I want to die on Mars Pronutria 10x or more increase in productivity for nutrition (output/acre)
All Hands on Deck 1. Foundations and donors: 0rganize philanthropic giving around Grand Challenges 2. Universities: organize research initiatives to meet ambitious Grand Challenge goals 3. Companies: Identify a Grand Challenge they can contribute to Sponsor major incentive prizes designed to address a Grand Challenge Be early customers, provide capital, or provide mentoring to startups pursuing a Grand Challenge 4. Angel, venture, and impact investors can back startups that are pursuing Grand Challenges 5. Media companies and America s storytellers can help make engineers and entrepreneurs pursuing Grand Challenges the rock stars of the 21 st century
Role for Universities (1) Scale-up Grand Challenge Scholars program goal of X participating universities and Y students, organize alumni Design and launch research initiatives to meet grand challenges Suggest additional Grand Challenges and organize workshops to define research agenda, public and private actions needed to meet them
Role for Universities (2) Develop, share and curate Open Educational Resources organized around Grand Challenges (as opposed to disciplines) Pedagogical goal is to inspire and empower the next generation of change-makers to tackle Grand Challenges at home and abroad
OER for Grand Challenges Description of overall problem, reason for urgency Description of specific, more granular problems that could motivate student research projects Identification of the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to make an important contribution to this challenge Interviews with peers and young professionals who are working on this problem
Thank You challenges@ostp.gov
UCLA GRAND CHALLENGES INITIATIVE Michelle Popowitz Amy Hawkins Jill Sweitzer (in spirit) NORDP Conference May 18, 2014
QUICK FACTS ABOUT UCLA Founded in 1919 ~7,000 academic professionals 1,731 ladder rank 1,607 research series College (5 divisions) 11 Professional Schools Medical Center Research awards averaging near $1B/year
APPROACH TO RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT (BEFORE GRAND CHALLENGES) STAFFING 2 FTEs for proposal/team support 1 LSO FTE 3 Special Projects FTE 3 Students
APPROACH TO RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT (BEFORE GRAND CHALLENGES) PROGRAMS Ad hoc support 13 monthly newsletters (2011) Formal LSO process (2012) Seed grants (2 cycles per year 2011) Shared Resources Funding (2011)
WHY GRAND CHALLENGES?
SINCE THE BEGINNING IT HAS BEEN CHARMED
WHY IT WORKS FOR UCLA Connects to mission Increases faculty impact Provides investment priorities Enhances our brand Enables collaboration across administrative units
OUR INITIAL APPROACH Define more projects than needed Facilitate six groups defining projects via 6 weekly meetings Concurrently try to win campus buy-in without a defined project.
CURRENT SHAPE OF GRAND CHALLENGES INITIATIVE 1. Grand Challenge Projects 2. Research Escalator 3. Student Immersion 4. Public Engagement
First Component UCLA GRAND CHALLENGE PROJECTS Four to Six Extraordinary Projects Capture the imagination Demand advances, innovation and breakthroughs Rely on creative funding strategies
First Component FIRST UCLA GRAND CHALLENGE PROJECT Define path for Los Angeles region to be selfsufficient with energy & water by 2050
First Component NEXT GRAND CHALLENGE PROJECTS
RESEARCH ESCALATOR Investment in infrastructure 30 sessions in FY14 1100 registrations from faculty and students across campus Second Component
STUDENT IMMERSION OVERVIEW Curriculum feedback loop Student participation with GCPs Other extra-curricular projects Third Component
GRAND CHALLENGES-UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARS PROGRAM 50 student cohort STEM retention/stem literacy Year-long course Concurrent research experience Third Component
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Celebration of successes Multi-media storytelling Public Participation Fourth Component
LESSONS LEARNED Nothing is more inspirational Nothing is harder Requires new models Requires a lot of staff and buy in Requires flexibility and vigilance. External validation is essential
Arizona State University strategic initiatives in action
strategic framework {DOE SunShot Lightworks QEEST Expenditure goals
ASU has been a pioneer in solar research for the past four decades, and now it is bringing a set of much broader emerging technologies together in an initiative called LightWorks.
QESST: ERC FOR QUANTUM ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE SOLAR TECHNOLOGIES (QESST) Engineering Research Center aims to accelerate solar energy advances and solve challenges to harnessing solar power in economically viable and sustainable ways. $19M NSF/DOE award was the beginning
expenditure goals teamed with research initiatives
team in action {Faculty OKED FSE RA
Opportunity Life Cycle: multi-level, multi-service
Project Management: one key to success
strategy in action {Technical Initiative Expenditure metrics Multi-level, multi-service team
excellence decisive solutions-oriented impact entrepreneurial access visionary a New American University bold create imaginative re-envision