A foreword: today's grand challenges

IOE Impact Stories 2025: Grand Challenges Special Edition

Over the past century, we’ve made remarkable strides in economic, social, and environmental development. Yet today, we face a new generation of complex, interconnected challenges, from the climate crisis and mental health to the ethical use of data in society. These issues demand more than incremental change; they require bold, collaborative, and interdisciplinary approaches. 

Traditional methods are no longer sufficient. The United Nations has warned that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals is alarmingly off track, with some hard-won gains at risk of reversal. In response, UCL has embraced a different path – one that draws on our world-class research, a proud tradition of radical, disruptive thinking, and a commitment to working collaboratively with civil society. 

Launched in 2008, UCL’s Grand Challenges programme was designed to bring together researchers from across disciplines to tackle society’s most pressing problems through collaboration. This approach is now embedded in our 2022–2027 Strategic Plan and has supported over 450 projects involving nearly 1,000 researchers. More than a funding mechanism, Grand Challenges has become part of UCL’s culture, shaping how we think, collaborate, and act. It is a powerful expression of our civic mission. 

Nowhere is this more evident than at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), our globally leading faculty of education. The IOE’s interdisciplinary centres and departments, combined with its vibrant physical spaces and deep connections to policy and practice, foster the kind of serendipitous connections and creative thinking that drive impactful research. It is precisely the kind of environment where interdisciplinary excellence can flourish. 

This volume of Impact Case Studies, an honour for me to introduce, showcases the many ways IOE researchers are making a difference through the Grand Challenges. From advancing cultural understanding through leadership in Holocaust education, to exploring how the climate crisis affects children and young people, these stories reflect the IOE’s deep commitment to research that matters. 

I am continually inspired and grateful for the IOE’s engagement with the Grand Challenges programme. Whether through pioneering interdisciplinary projects, shaping the programme’s governance, or equipping students with the skills to lead change, the IOE has been a vital partner. As we evolve the programme for the future, I have no doubt that the IOE will continue to lead the way, creating new stories of impact, innovation, and hope. 

Sam Balch
Director, UCL Grand Challenges

UCL Grand Challenges

• Mental Health and Wellbeing: UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health and Wellbeing aims to become a beacon for improvements in mental health and wellbeing through transformative crossdisciplinary research, practice and partnerships for prevention and early intervention.
• Climate Crisis: UCL’s Grand Challenge of Climate Crisis leverages global expertise across disciplines to develop innovative solutions that protect the future of our planet.
• Data-Empowered Societies: UCL’s Grand Challenge of Data-Empowered Societies explores how data and technology can be used to solve global challenges while ensuring fairness, inclusion, and societal benefit.
• Inequalities (previously Justice and Equality): UCL’s Grand Challenge of Inequalities encourages interdisciplinary research from across UCL, to understand the obstacles to justice and how societal systems maintain inequalities.
• Cultural Understanding: UCL’s Grand Challenge of Cultural Understanding looks at the differing, complex, and evolving relationships among people, communities, and cultures.
• Transformative Technology: Transformative Technology funds cross-disciplinary work at UCL and with partner organisations, with a focus on priority themes of food, disability innovation, social impacts of new technology, data for good, and nature-inspired engineering.