Pressing societal needs like expanding access to mental health services, heading off pandemics and reducing educational disparities aren’t neatly divided among academic disciplines—and neither is the University of Maryland’s signature initiative to address them.
On Thursday, UMD announced the launch of 11 high-impact research projects representing more than 40 disciplines across campus, funded by nearly $15 million over three years through the Grand Challenges Grants Program. College of Education faculty are collaborating on three of the 11 interdisciplinary projects.
It’s the next step in an ongoing commitment to channel the university’s research power into advancing solutions for the public good. In 2023, the first round of Grand Challenges Grants committed $30 million to 50 projects spanning every college and school—including 11 in the College of Education. It was the largest investment of its kind in the university's history, resulting in an additional $55 million in external funding.
“The inaugural program demonstrated extraordinary impact due to the breadth of expertise and collaborative spirit across our research enterprise,” Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice and Vice President for Research Patrick O’Shea said in an email to the campus community. “Through Grand Challenges 1.0, faculty developed innovative approaches to issues from climate resilience to food insecurity to educational equity and more, strengthening partnerships across disciplines, engaging students in new opportunities, and positioning the university for greater external funding, scholarly impact and public engagement.”
The projects funded this year by Grand Challenges Grants 2.0 were selected from nearly 80 proposals from every college and school involving 400 researchers. The projects will also receive a 50% matching in-kind and/or cash investment from their college or unit. Institutional Awards will total $1.5 million, Impact Awards are $1.05 million, and Team Awards will total $600,000. College of Education faculty are co-principal investigators (co-PI) on both Institutional Awards and also lead one of the Team Awards as PI and co-Pi.
“These projects exemplify the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to generate new ideas, accelerate discovery and address the grand challenges facing communities in Maryland, across the nation and around the world,” Rice and O’Shea said. “We are inspired by the vision and innovation reflected in these projects, and grateful to everyone who submitted proposals.”
Read on to learn about the individual projects involving College of Education faculty. Learn more about all 11 projects in Maryland Today.
Institutional Awards
IN-PLACE: Interdisciplinary Network for Place-Based Learning, Action and Community-Engaged EnvironMental Health
PI: Associate Professor Jessica Magidson, Psychology; Co-PIs: Professor Byoung-Suk Kweon, Plant Science and Landscape Architecture; Senior Agent Alexander Chan, University of Maryland Extension; Associate Professor Jana VanderGoot, Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Assistant Professor Jayson Porter, History; Associate Professor Andrea Lopez, Anthropology; Associate Clinical Professor Amy Green, Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership; Associate Professor Jennifer Roberts, Kinesiology; Assistant Professor Noah Triplett, Behavioral and Community Health.
IN-PLACE connects time spent in nature with evidence-based mental health care through community partnerships, research and campus programming to simultaneously address the interconnected challenges of mental health, environmental health and health disparities.
Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Research Collaborative (WHIRC)
PI: Associate Professor Marie Thoma, Family Science; Co-PIs: Associate Professor Jioni Lewis, Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education; Professor Alisa Clyne, Bioengineering; Assistant Professor Ang Li, Electrical and Computer Engineering.
WHIRC is a campuswide interdisciplinary collaborative that advances translational research, workforce development and evidence-based policy to close critical knowledge gaps in women's health across the lifespan, leveraging AI and community-engaged approaches to drive real-world improvements for a historically underrepresented population in medical research.
Team Award
Belonging for Immigrants and Refugees with Disabilities (BIRD)
PI: Assistant Professor Veronica Kang, Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education; Co-PIs: Associate Professor Julie Park, Sociology; Assistant Professor Sehrish Shikarpurya, Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education.
BIRD is a community-driven initiative that partners with grassroots organizations to provide culturally tailored support services, workforce training and policy advocacy for immigrants and refugees with disabilities to reduce systemic barriers and improve access to education, healthcare and community resources.
Photo by Stephanie S. Cordle
This story is adapted from an article that first appeared in Maryland Today.
