Dear Colleagues,

A key goal of the IU Bicentennial Strategic Plan involves the building, expansion, focusing & improvement of research at IU that will have a real and substantial impact on the state, nation and world.

The centerpiece of the strategy to achieve this goal was the establishment of a program that would marshal, in a coordinated and prioritized way, extensive resources from right across the university, campuses and schools in support of a small number of large and targeted multidisciplinary “Grand Challenge” research projects focused on real problems in the state, nation and globally.

I am very pleased to inform you that we announced this program yesterday, and announced in particular that IU would commit an unprecedented $300 million over five years to support a small number – no more than four or five – Grand Challenge research projects – projects that will have a sustained major impact.

This represents the largest and most important investment in research that IU has ever made in its nearly 200 year history, and we believe it is the largest ever made in the state and one of the largest made anywhere else in the nation by any university.

I am as always, happy to answer any questions you might have concerning this extraordinary new program.

With best regards,

Michael McRobbie
President
Indiana University