Launch of the Grand Challenge of Transformative Technology Impact Report

Established in 2016, the Grand Challenge of Transformative Technology has united experts from across UCL and beyond to address some of society’s most complex issues, from disability innovation and food security to the social impact of emerging technologies and the ethical use of data. 

Led by Professor Patty Kostkova (UCL Centre for Digital Public Health in Emergencies), Professor Marc-Olivier Coppens (UCL Engineering), and Professor Jack Stilgoe (UCL Science and Technology Studies), the programme has harnessed interdisciplinary expertise to deliver bold, creative solutions in areas such as healthcare, AI, nature-inspired engineering, and sustainability. 

The newly launched report highlights the remarkable achievements of the researchers, innovators, and partners who have contributed to the programme. It showcases how technology, guided by ethical and inclusive principles, can deliver tangible benefits for people and communities around the world. 

Insights and collaborations generated through the Grand Challenge have directly informed the Data-Empowered Societies theme, a cornerstone of UCL’s Strategic Plan (2022–2027). 

The Grand Challenges team are grateful to all who have championed, contributed, shared insights, expertise and participated in building the collaborative spirit that has been vital in the success of the Grand Challenges programme. 

Professor Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) says: “As the Grand Challenge of Transformative Technology concludes, it is clear to me that the issues it sought to explore are, like the UCL Grand Challenges itself, complex and interconnected. These issues, and the role of technology in addressing them, will undoubtedly form part of the future evolved Grand Challenges programme and inform our work across topics as diverse as inequalities, climate change, and mental health. I’d like to extend my thanks to the many people who have played a part in the UCL Grand Challenge of Transformative Technology over the years, as we embark on the next phase of the Grand Challenges' evolution.” 

Dr Ian Scott, former Director, Grand Challenges and Cross-Disciplinary Development and Professor David Price, former Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation, and Global Engagement) say: The simple two-word title, Transformative Technology, was coined for a new Grand Challenges theme that would give academic engineers and technologists the spur to reach out across disciplinary boundaries to engage the interest of scholars remote from their own bread-and-butter research, to tackle societally-important questions for innovators in technology. Transformative Technology quickly proved its currency and value as a broad societal issue and spur for cross-disciplinary interaction. The insights gained have been influential in the genesis of the Data-Empowered Societies theme, one of the major threads of the evolved Grand Challenges Programme now serving UCL’s Strategic Plan 2022 - 2027.