UCL Grand Challenges invites visitors to a launch reception this Tuesday to mark the opening of the Grand Challenges: Grand Impacts exhibition in the South Cloisters.
To mark the fifteenth year of UCL's Grand Challenges, an exhibition has been curated by UCL Culture to showcase the incredible achievements so far, the people and communities who have played a role in the initiative, and to explore the future evolution of the programme.
The exhibition invites visitors to learn about the work of UCL's Grand Challenges, an initiative of the UCL Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement) and aims to inspire the innovative and disruptive thinking of the future. This is demonstrated by a range of case studies on display which highlight how a diversity of ideas and range of partnerships are needed to create impactful solutions to societal challenges.
Themes explored by the exhibition include: Catalysing Research, Informing Decision Makers, Engaging Communities, Creating New Platforms, Prototyping and Challenging the Status Quo
For the last fifteen years, the UCL Grand Challenges has been instrumental in supporting and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration at UCL. Born of a desire to break down barriers between academic disciplines, between research and industry, and between the academic community and the communities around us, it was a radical and novel approach - what if the starting point for research was challenge-led, rather than subject-led? How can a university enable and encourage greater collaboration? What can we do with seed corn funding to make a real, tangible impact on the pressing problems facing humanity?
Now in its fifteenth year, the Grand Challenges are firmly at the heart of UCL's approach to research and have inspired similar programmes at universities across the UK and worldwide.
The Grand Challenges, Grand Impacts Exhibition will open on 7 February 2023. It will be on display at UCL's main campus - South Cloisters, Wilkins Building, Gower Street, London WC1E 6AE - until 26 May 2023.
