The program awarded nearly $15 million in grants, building on the success of its inaugural round.
The University of Maryland announced Thursday 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.
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 across every college and school—the largest investment of its kind in the university's history—and resulted 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.
Read on to learn about the projects in UMD's College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences.
Impact Awards
Predictive Biology Hub for Human and Environmental Health
PI: Professor Joshua Weitz, Biology; Co-PIs: Professor and Chair Evan Economo, Entomology; Professor Meredith Gore, Geographical Sciences; Distinguished University Professor William Fagan, Biology; Assistant Professor Nikolas Francis, Biology; Professor Michelle Girvan, Physics; Associate Professor Philip Johnson, Biology; Associate Professor Haizhao Yang, Mathematics and Computer Science; Assistant Professor Nan Xu, Bioengineering.
This initiative develops new predictive tools to mitigate pandemics, improve human health outcomes, and sustain vital ecosystems in the face of emerging global threats across biological scales, from pathogens and ecosystems to brain networks and bioinspired design.
Team Awards
Maryland Initiative Against Superbugs (MAS)
PI: Assistant Professor Norberto Gonzalez-Juarbe, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics; Co-PI: Assistant Professor Seth Dickey, Veterinary Medicine.
This project focuses on the discovery and engineering of bacteriophage: viruses that infect and kill bacteria. It will combine AI, computational modeling and experimental validation to identify and optimize bacteriophage, or phage, therapies capable of precisely targeting and killing drug-resistant superbugs.
AI for Precision Cancer Treatment
PI: Professor Teng Li, Mechanical Engineering; Co-PIs: Assistant Research Professor Lianping Wu, Mechanical Engineering; Associate Professor Xiaodi Wu, Computer Science.
This project integrates quantum computing and machine learning to design single-atom catalysts, an emerging approach for improving early cancer detection and treatment efficacy, offering a faster, more cost-effective path to safer therapies that minimize damage to healthy tissue.
The Air We Share: A Public Health Revolution for the 21st Century
PI: Distinguished University Professor Donald Milton, Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health; Co-PIs: Professor Jelena Srebric, Mechanical Engineering; Associate Research Professor Kathleen McPhaul, Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health; Assistant Professor Huang Lin, Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Distinguished University Professor Maureen Cropper, Economics; Professor Anna Alberini, Agricultural and Resource Economics; Distinguished University Professor Abba Gumel, Mathematics, Institute for Health Computing.
This project aims to revolutionize indoor air safety by advancing the science of airborne infection transmission, demonstrating clean air interventions in homes and healthcare settings, and building the research infrastructure and next-generation leadership needed to make safe indoor air a universal public health standard.
Land-Sea Exchange Network for Salinity (LENS): An Early Warning System for Detecting and Managing Salinity Risks
PI: Associate Professor Kate Tully, Plant Science and Landscape Architecture; Co-PIs: Associate Professor Becky Epanchin-Niell, Agricultural and Resource Economics; Professor Sujay Kaushal, Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences.
LENS brings together experts across numerous fields to track salt levels from land to coastal waters and develop an early warning system to help policymakers and communities identify, manage and reduce the environmental and economic impacts of saltwater intrusion and road salt pollution.
