June 3, 2025 • 36 mins
Drawing on our roots as the university that overcame adversity to become the nation’s youngest-ever R1 institution—and one whose sponsored research funding has grown 64 percent since 2020—George Mason University is launching a university-wide strategy to sharpen our focus on humanity’s most pressing issues while maximizing our competitiveness for external research funding: the Grand Challenge Initiative. For this episode of Access to Excellence, Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation, and economic impact at George Mason, joins President Gregory Washington to discuss this new initiative and how it will shape the future of our university.
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Trailblazers in research;innovators in technology;
and those who simply have a good story:
all make up the fabric thatis George Mason University.
We're taking on the grand challengesthat face our students, graduates;
inand higher education isour mission and our passion.
Hosted by Mason PresidentGregory Washington,
this is the Access to Excellence podcast.
(00:27):
Our world is at a crossroads.
It is time either to brace ourselvesfor an era of global decline and
a future that none of uswould choose for ourselves,
or it's time to seize back control ofour destiny and work together to reverse
course.
Meeting this moment requiresunprecedented action to create the future
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we want for our planet.
As one of the top tier researchuniversities in the country,
George Mason has announced animportant and bold new direction for
our university and for research.
Drawing on our roots as a universitythat overcame adversity to become the
youngest R1 institution and one whosponsors research funding has grown
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significantly more than 64% since 2020,
we are launching a university-widestrategy to sharpen our focus
on humanity's most pressingissues while maximizing our
competitiveness for a dwindlingexternal research funding opportunities.
We call it our Grand Challenge Initiative.
It will take all of us workingtogether across schools, colleges,
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and disciplines atGeorge Mason University,
in partnership with research partners inour region and throughout the world to
determine the course forour collective future.
So today we're gonna talk about it.
We're gonna dive intothis with Andre Marshall,
vice President for researchinnovation and economic impact.
In his role as the universitysenior research officer Andre,
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who joined George Mason in 2021,
provides overall leadership for theportfolio of research innovation and
economic development activities.Prior to George Mason,
Andre served in leadership positions atthe National Science Foundation and at
the University of Maryland College Park.
He is the recipient of the NSFPresidential Early Career Award
(02:17):
in Science and Engineering (PECASE),
which is one of the most prestigiousawards a young faculty member can achieve.
And he's also the recipient of thePhilip Thomas Medal of Excellence.
And his research has been supportedby national and international funding.
Andre, thanks for joining us today.
Thank you for having me. I can'ttell you how excited I am to be here.
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Outstanding. Well, look, I talkedabout the grand challenge issue,
but you know, we often get thequestion, what is a grand challenge? So,
given that this is a big partof your portfolio going forward,
I'm asking you what's a grand challenge?
Alright, well we spent really a lotof time thinking about this and for
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George Mason University,from our perspective, the Grand Challenge Initiative,
it's all about the future.
And specifically as we thoughtabout kind of what that means
to operationalize this,
we developed four criteriafor what a grand challenge is.
So a grand challengeis large and enduring.
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And what we mean by that is we are nottrying to solve the little problems.
As you say,
we are focused on the big rocks and we'renot looking for quick fixes. Alright?
We want to have a solution that lasts.
Give me an example. Notone of our solutions,
but give me a specificexample of a grand challenge.
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A grand challenge that comesto mind would be a cure for
sickle cell, for example.
Okay.
You know, that challengeimpacts people globally.
There's a lot of suffering associatedwith that. It, it changes people's lives.
And so if you can addressthose kinds of issues,
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you can really make a difference. Andguess what? It's big. And if you solve it,
you've solved it. And that'swhat I mean by, you know,
doing something that isbig and enduring. You know,
also a grand challenge is complex and it
requires people from not justacross the, the university,
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but it requires external partners.
So what we mean by, youknow, this kind of complex,
interdisciplinary,
and external partner criterion is that you
can't do it alone, right? You need people,the problem is bigger than just you.
Alright,
so we got grand challengesthat are big and they
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endure and they requiremultiple partners. Um,
and now let's talk about this thirdcriterion. And this is focused on Mason.
Look,
we need to focus on challengesthat we can really do
something about and that alignswith our strengths, our assets,
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and our core values.
So we want things that meansomething to George Mason
University in terms of ourvalues and our expertise
and strengths. And then finally,
this fourth criterion is that wewant to move the needle and to
make a difference. So we don't want our,
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our our activities to just be a drop inthe bucket. The things that we work on,
they're going to really make a change.They're not just going to be additive.
And so we have to be careful aboutthe problems that we choose and the
challenges that we choose so that they'realigned with our strengths and that we
can really do something.
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So we have world classfaculty focused on a whole
host of issues, right? From povertyto health, to engineering and science.
How would you recommend we focus oureffort? I know you, you had a committee,
this committee has met for asignificant period of time,
some of our best and brightest faculty,and you all tackled this issue.
(06:20):
So talk a little bit aboutdeploying our resources and focus.
I appreciate that questionand I appreciate the intentionality of this question.
We really need to deploy our resources.
We need to deploy our entireresearch enterprise for action
and for impact,
especially considering all the headwindsthat we have right now. We've got, uh,
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resource limitations in terms of research.
We have increased competitionfor talent and resources,
and we have changing priorities in theresearch landscape to, to be frank.
And so we have to be intentionalabout how we're gonna deploy our
resources and ourresearch enterprise. Well,
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our faculty, they're committedto making a difference. So we,
we need to honor that they arecommitted to having an impact and
changing the world. So, youknow, that's our foundation.
That we want to do something,that the faculty care about,
that they're good at that isreally gonna make a difference.
So we put together, uh, asyou mentioned this committee,
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we talked about so many different
possibilities of what we could do.
There were 84 different ideas that came
up.
So there,
so there was a big focusing effortthat happened to get it down to six.
To get it down to six. Therewere 84 different ideas.
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And those were sourced not justfrom the faculty, their networks,
the external community.
We revisited thosecriteria that I mentioned.
We kind of synthesizedthose 84 into groups.
And then we did what's called the SOARanalysis, where we looked at strengths,
opportunities, aspirations,
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and the kinds of results that wewanted in order to get things down
a little further. And whenwe put everything together,
we came up with some thrust areas.Alright? These thrust areas,
they reflected our values,they reflected our strengths,
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they reflected things that the facultyand the researchers and our students
could get excited about. They werethings that could make a difference.
And I'm not gonna tellyou the six right now.
Yeah, yeah. We, we, I'm--
Not, I'm not, I'm gonna tellyou why I'm not gonna tell you.
No, no, no. We'll get in there.We'll get into that later.
No, but I, I just wanna say this (08:48):
a big piece of it was the money. Alright?
So I want you, you asked about resources.And so during this whole conversation,
I got a lot of pressure. It's likewe're doing, we're doing all this work,
we're being thoughtful,
but are we gonna have theresources to actually do
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something?
And I'm so proud to say thatin addition to having the
ideas, this effort inorder to really deploy it,
as you mentioned,
has some resources behindit that are significant.
And the fact that there's some resourcesthat back up these ideas makes all the
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difference.
So speaking of resources,
there's a lot of uncertainty right nowwith federal funding for research that
all universities are experiencing,right? We've seen caps on overhead. Uh,
we've seen reductions and grantsfor a whole myriad of reasons.
It's started with a DEI framework,but it's gone way beyond that.
(09:51):
I think a lot of people, so--
You're talking about why Iget up at two in the morning.
. Exactly. So,
so I think a lot of people would bewondering why double down and make an
investment in the research space rightnow, given all of the uncertainty.
So President Washington, wereally have you to thank for that.
So I'm following your lead.I can remember, you know, more than a year ago now,
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you actually introducing theidea that federal funding,
federal resources are gonna decline.And we need to be ready for that.
We need to be thinkingabout what are the most
important problems for us tofocus our efforts on. And so,
George Mason University, as weoften are, we are ahead of the,
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the curve on this one. We'reorganized, we have some focus areas,
we have some resources behind this.
And even in this declining landscape,we've got a long-term plan.
You mentioned the stresses that areon our research enterprise right now.
The budget cuts, the DEI concerns,
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the politics. Research isabout so much more than that.
Research is about discovery.It's about new knowledge,
and ultimately it's about societal benefitand making the world a better place.
And so we're not gonnafocus on these distractions.
We have to be aware of them, butwe're not gonna focus on that.
We're focused on the long game here.
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And this Grand Challenge Initiative gives
us something to look forwardto. It's a bright spot.
It helps focus us from the distractions.
We are leading on this becausewe're not so focused on
some of these distractions,
and it gives us an opportunityto set ourselves apart.
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Well, I think that's the key issue.
At a time when people are,
for lack of a better way ofputting this retrenching,
we are going to be investing.
That's right.
It follows the, the Warren Buffetadage. Warren Buffet says, look,
when, when othersare greedy, be afraid.
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And when others are afraid, be greedy.Right? And so that is the framework,
that is the, the rationale for makingthese investments and making them now.
So access to research,
whether it's support for faculty orhands-on experiences for our students,
is a huge driver at George Mason.
How could faculty getinvolved in the initiative?
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I'm gonna say our facultyare already involved in the
initiative. When the committee was formed,
we looked at broadrepresentation from the faculty.
We looked at senior facultyfrom across the academic units.
I talked to deans about the facultythat would be good for this.
We even had deans on the committee.
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We had junior faculty onthe committee as well.
So their voices have alreadybeen heard in shaping
the very beginning of this. Andwe are just at the very beginning,
there's gonna be so much morethat comes out of this initiative.
It it, it really does frame whatour research is gonna look like
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strategically for the next five to 10years here at George Mason University.
And as the effort grows,
we'll engage a broadercommunity of faculty.
In fact, we're veryintentional about that.
We've already identified champions,grand challenge champions,
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that are going out throughoutthe university and helping people
to understand more aboutthe solution areas and
the opportunities forinvestment and connecting.
We're looking for faculty that canstart thinking about integrating
their research into these thrustareas. So they're already out there,
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right? And while weare doing the outreach,
faculty can already bethinking, you know what?
There's this grand challenge area here.
I know I'm doing something inthis area or adjacent to it.
How can I use this Grand ChallengeInitiative to amplify that?
There was this wonderful DearPatriots letter that went out
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at the end of April.
So the students and the facultyand everyone knows about that,
can start thinking about integratingsome of this grand challenge activity
into their curriculum, into their classes.
And what I love about this is,
at its core Grand ChallengeInitiative is a research effort.
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And as we mature as aresearch intensive university,
we should be thinking moreabout really nucleating our
activities around research.
So having these classroomactivities that are kind of, uh,
built around or inspired by somemajor research things is super
exciting.
They can start thinkingabout the facilities and infrastructure that they might
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need in order to really move theneedle in some of these spaces.
And our solution areas are broad.
And so thinking about how theymight collaborate across disciplines
and who their peers will be or,
or could be in these solution areaswill be great. And in the future,
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in the fall, we're gonna have, you know,
some structured events andactivities that can really
help our faculty and studentcommunity get more engaged.
Okay. Well let's talkabout these six areas.
So there are six areas of investment that
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in, in my opinion, are areas of grandchallenge need in the country, right?
Actually globally.
And these are areas where wehave key significant expertise,
right? We have both. So one:
advancing 21st centuryeducation for all. Two:
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building a climateresilient society. Three:
driving responsible digital innovationand sustainable infrastructure.
Four (16:17):
improving human health, wellbeing and preparedness.
Five (16:23):
preparing for space exploration,
research and collaboration.And six: strengthening peace,
trust and engagement in democracy.
Those are the six grand challengeareas. I think they're outstanding.
Let's talk through a couple of themand highlight some of the big areas
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that we believe we have expertise andwe will touch society in these general
areas. So first,
let's talk about advancing21st century education for
all.
Can you talk a little bit about how thecommittee came to that conclusion of,
of a grand challenge?
Mason is big. We haveover 40,000 students.
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And so one of the biggest advantages,
some of the biggest benefitsthat we offer is education,
workforce development toour to our region and to
the country. We knowhow to do that at scale.
And that accessing 21stcentury education for all
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is about transforming education,
breaking barriers to drive inclusivity and
access and creating theworkforce of the future. So,
okay, we do things at scale.We care about education,
we care about access, andwe care about the future.
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And things are changing so rapidly in the
technology space.
And that's where I want to kind of talka little bit about intersectionality.
And so we've got thiswonderful new initiative in AI,
right?
And we are looking at the futureand how some of these technologies,
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whether it's AI or whether it's quantum,
is gonna change theworkforce of the future.
And are there going to beopportunities for everyone in this
rapidly changing landscape? And so wecan bring our scale, we can bring our,
our commitment to accessand our research know-how
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in these emerging areas likequantum, like AI, like others,
all together in order to do somethingthat's relevant and impactful,
like 21st century education for all.
There is a digital divide in the country.
And we have experts that arefocused in that space right?
Where bridging the gap with studentswho have access to technology and
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connectivity and those whodon't, teacher shortages, right?
There are teacher shortagesall over the country.
We're one of the largest producersof educators in this region,
not just in our state.
A third of all the teachers in NorthernVirginia are Mason educated and
50% of all the leadership, right?
But then there are issues like curriculumrelevance, student mental health,
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assessment and standardization.
These are all areas that I feelthat our faculty are well positioned
to actually tackle.
And I think we're gonna havegreat outcomes relative to this.
I I can give you one, one example,you know? Uh, in the research space,
we just had Professor Kaya,
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who's an elementary education professor.
She is working on this digital divide,
just like you mentioned,
just received a million dollarsfrom NSF to cultivate AI literacy
through inclusivelinguistics and integrated
elementary curriculumand educational robotics.
(20:03):
Oh, that's amazing.
Yeah. So, so we're doing it.
So another one of these areas isthis whole area of building a climate
resilient society.
And then this is an area where weactually have a significant number of
outstanding scholars. And so let mehighlight what I see in this area,
and then you can talk specificallyabout what the committee, uh,
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dealt with in terms oftheir focused efforts.
When we talk about climate resilience,
we are talking about climateresilient energy systems, right?
And that means strengthening the systemsto respond and recover to climate
related disasters, uh, you know, moreeffectively and quickly. Right? You know,
we can argue about what'scausing the climate change,
which is what we tend to bedoing in this country now.
(20:46):
Or we could really be focusedon what do we do when 40 major
storms hit our country in a yearcausing widespread destruction and loss
of life. Uh,
how do we rebuild systems that areresilient to what's coming of the
fact that our climatehas changed, you know,
for lack of a better way of putting it,
people will argue over whether climatechange is caused by man or is caused by
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nature.
But what they're not arguing over is the fact that our climate is
changing, right? You know, people seethe, the storms, they see the wildfires,
they're experiencing this.
It is so prevalent and so frequentthat you actually can't deny
that aspect. And so, uh,
building systems that are resilientto these climate change, that's,
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that's one area where we know we haveexpertise and where we have strength.
And then there's issues of communitypreparedness that's ensuring that
vulnerable communities have the resources,
knowledge and support to adapt tothe actual changing climate, right?
And so I see a whole hostof areas plus others, right,
where we actually havesignificant expertise.
(21:54):
Talk a little bit about the committeeand what the committee thoughts were as
it relates to these issues.
So we knew that we have, and we knowthat we have strength in those areas.
And the committee spent quitea bit of time discussing our
strengths in these areas and how topull them together into a narrative
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that we could put forward, but wewere worried about putting it forward.
Because of the word climate.
Interesting.
And we spent quite a bitof time talking about this.
And in the end,
we know that this is animportant solution to the
problem of and challenge ofcreating the future we want,
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and it's aligned with our values and ourstrengths and we move forward with it.
I'd like to pull some ofthe things together that you
mentioned in terms of howbig this could be and how
much George Mason Universitycould do in this area.
Okay.
You talked aboutinfrastructure resilience,
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you talked about community resilience.
We have an amazing team of climate
forecasters who are experts incomputational fluid dynamics
also. And you can pullall of that together.
Right? And, and, and not to mentionthe climate communications folks.
Ah, it's an excellent point.
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Who, when you talk aboutengaging communities, right?
When we talk about this wholeaspect of community preparedness,
ensuring that vulnerable communitieshave the resources, knowledge,
and support to adapt, right?
That's all about how you get informationto people and how you do it in a high
quality and accessible fashion, right?
(23:44):
Let me talk a little bitabout probably the,
the one that's probably mostcontroversial, right? And that is grand challenges,
uh, relative to what we'redoing in the area of peace,
trust and engagement in democracy.Peace, trust and engagement in democracy.
Because in my opinion,
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the political climate in the countryis really changing our ability
to be successful in manyof the other areas, right?
Because the political climateis affecting our funding,
and that funding affects how we tackleall of the other grand challenges.
So we gotta deal with it. We gottatalk about it, right? And so,
so what kind of challenges are wetalking about here? The erosion of trust.
(24:28):
There's clearly declining publictrust in democratic institutions.
We actually have the faculty here whocould study, who can analyze that.
And that's declining trustin democratic institutions.
There's declining trust in the media. Uh,
the declining trustin higher education...
.
Where, where, where we sit.
And so we have faculty whoare working in that space.
(24:48):
We have people that are working inthis general area of disinformation and
misinformation, right? Uh, we havefaculty who are studying that.
And the whole idea of the spreadof false or misleading information,
and that's amplified right now by socialmedia and, and bringing in and, uh,
those aspects of socialmedia and understanding and helping people to understand
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what kind of tools and systems we needto have in place to thwart that and
to ensure that the public is actuallygetting accurate and actionable
information.
Yeah. These are great points. And again,
our strengths and our valuesare aligned with this.
And we have internationalclout in this space.
(25:32):
We just received or wewere just designated as
the
UN Hub for SustainableDevelopment Goal 16,
which focuses on peace,
trust and strong institutions.
So we have an internationalposition here that we can build on
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for moving the needle in that space.
And that is through our Carter Schoolof Peace and Conflict Resolution.
But we'll draw on all of the centers and
academic units to, to fieldsof study to support this.
One thing that comes to mind is someof the nice work that Max Albanese, uh,
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does in the area of electionsecurity. So I wanna make this point,
whether we're talking about theseareas like strengthening peace, trust,
and engagement in democracy, orbuilding a climate resilient society.
Many of the activities thatwe've been talking about,
they're what you need tobuild an ecosystem, okay?
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When you're talking about theseareas, we can't think of 'em like, oh,
we have just a few strong faculty, orwe've got some great infrastructure.
We are looking at building ecosystemsaround these communities of
experts and partners andnetworks and infrastructure and
projects and programs thatspan research and education
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all in this thrust area.
Because when you have that networkand that infrastructure and the talent
all there activated, that's whenyou can move the needle in a space.
And that's what we're trying to buy.
This is, this is good.
There's so many areas in this spacewhere we have really strong expertise,
voter suppression, electoralintegrity, we got experts there.
(27:23):
We got folk who are focused indealing with this issue of political
polarization. Even, uh,
when it comes to technology andsurveillance. So if you think about that,
you know, these are, you got these digitaltools and they can empower citizens,
right? But they, they also raise concernsabout privacy, about surveillance,
and about algorithmic bias in thesesystems, right? And, you know,
(27:45):
we have this whole AI initiative withthis AI group that's really strong.
But the reality is thatgroup has a focus in,
uh, for lack of a better way ofputting this, AI and integrity, right?
Yes.
AI and ethics.
Yes.
That's where this technology pieceintersects with the political realm
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and having folk looking at theethical questions and the ethics of AI
and focused in that area,
I think we run the possibilityof being able to change,
uh, outcomes, uh, relative to that space.
Yeah.
And then finally looking atauthoritarianism and democratic
backsliding, right? We haveexpertise in that space.
(28:29):
And so the reality is that somecountries elected leaders are weakening
democratic checks and balances.
They're restricting freedom of thepress and they're eroding judicial
independence.
Being able to look at that and lookinto the effect that that will have on
societies in general, even onour own, is critical as we,
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as we move forward. And so I thinkthese are the right six areas.
I know we didn't have timeto get into all six of them,
but you all chose an outstanding set.
We haven't even began to talk aboutsome of the more fun ones like space
exploration, right? You know?Well, so why is that important?
Because if we screw thisthing up on this planet,
(29:13):
we need to find anotherone to go to..
Right. But all kidding, all kidding aside,
these are the right areas for focus. Ithink that we're, we're gonna do really,
really well with these,
and I look forward to the greatoutcomes that our faculty will
achieve in the space.
(29:34):
So thanks, uh, for sayingthat President Washington,
I'm really excited aboutwhere we're gonna go and I'm
most excited about havinga plan and a good plan that
we all can get behind and row in the same
direction and focus onthe future and not be
(29:56):
worried about all of the thingsthat we can't do anything
about right now.
So before we close, talkabout your next steps.
We have this entity in placenow. It's been approved,
we've allocated some resources to it.
And so what are some of thenext steps as you roll this out?
(30:16):
So there are really three things thatI'd like everybody to think about as
we move forward. We're raisingawareness, we're driving engagement,
and we're making investments. Thoseare the three things that we're doing.
So the email that you sent out at theend of April really kicked off the Grand
Challenge Initiative.
(30:37):
And people are already contactingme about how can they get
involved,
what can I do right now to begin to
work on this, to be a part of thesolution? I'll give you an example.
Young man contacted mewho's president of AIAA:
the American Institute forAeronautics and Astronautics.
(31:00):
And he says, I can't tell you howexcited I am. I think he saw that space.
. He did.
He saw that space solution, you know?
Yeah. He saw that one in, he,he just couldn't, uh, resist.
We got it.
. So, but, but here'sa point. This, to be candid,
is exactly what I was hoping for, right?
(31:21):
When people see researchopportunities and opportunities for
investment, oftentimes there's thisvery narrow view like, oh, okay,
there's gonna be a seedfunding opportunity.
I'm gonna write a proposaland I'm gonna get, you know,
a little bit of support to catalyze aresearch area. And we're gonna do that.
(31:41):
Okay? But we have ourentire community now.
We have a student organization that'sconnected to a national network
that's thinking about our grandchallenge solution area in space.
Could they do a student competition?
Could they host a nationalor international student
(32:03):
competition at George Mason University?
Might they want to write aproposal for that? Again,
there are ecosystemsthat I'm talking about.
So step one is awareness.What's the next step?
Driving engagement.
We have champions in each oneof these thrust areas that are
developing briefs thatkind of serve as our
(32:26):
roadmap or our foundation ofwhat each challenge is about.
And those champions are writing thoseup and then they're gonna visit local
academic units.
They're going to convenetheir networks and partners
and stakeholders with our help.
There'll be large meetings in the fallwhere we get everyone together and our
(32:49):
external networks and really help peopleunderstand what's possible with this
grand challenge opportunity.
And to make sure that people are imagining
what can happen. And the thing that Ididn't mention that I need to in the,
uh, raising awareness space and drivingengagement space is at the end of this
(33:10):
month,
we're sending out a request forinformation--an RFI--and it's just like an
idea solicitation.
We just want people to just write usand tell us what they're thinking about,
what they think they could do,alright, in the grand challenge.
That's a good step.
We'll collect all these ideas andthat's gonna help us with these
(33:30):
events early in the fall to organizepeople because we'll already know what
they're thinking and we can buildon their thoughts and add our own.
And we'll be able to haverelevant conversations in the fall
based on all these ideas.
And what's the, last, the last step.
That's the money piece: making investments. We have an investment committee. (33:49):
undefined
That's looking at puttingtogether a solicitation of sorts
that our community and stakeholderscan apply to for funding.
And that's gonna be informed by the RFI.
It's gonna be informed by our community on
(34:12):
exactly what theseinvestments may look like.
We're thinking that the investmentsmight be really high level at the
institutional level.
They could be at the team level or evenat the individual level working that
out.
Well that's great. Well, look,
this is big and I want tothank you and all of the
(34:32):
research faculty, staff,
and students who are working so hardalready on these bold solutions.
Every day we read new awards,new outcomes, new discoveries,
and they're outstanding.
And I know George Mason researchis a major reason why students
come to the university.
Every year we get more and moreapplications because we are creating
(34:55):
the access, the affordability,the flexibility,
and the opportunity for people to achievegreat things by solving problems like
the ones we've outlined today.
And that leads to a successfulcareer and a successful life.
So I am just ecstatic aboutwhere we're going with this,
and I look forward togreat things that come.
(35:16):
Thanks so much, President Washington.I really appreciate the time, uh,
that you spent the visibility thatyou're giving this important initiative,
and I'm happy to beconnected to it. Thank you.
Outstanding. I am George Mason,president Gregory Washington.
Thanks for listening.
And tune in next time for moreconversations that show why we are
(35:37):
all together different.
If you like what you heard on thispodcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu.
For more of Gregory Washington'sconversations with the thought leaders,
experts, and educators who take on thegrand challenges facing our students,
graduates and higher education.
(35:57):
That's podcast.gmu.edu.
Trailblazers in research;innovators in technology;
and those who simply have a good story:
all make up the fabric thatis George Mason University.
We're taking on the grand challengesthat face our students, graduates;
inand higher education isour mission and our passion.
Hosted by Mason PresidentGregory Washington,
this is the Access to Excellence podcast.
(00:27):
Our world is at a crossroads.
It is time either to brace ourselvesfor an era of global decline and
a future that none of uswould choose for ourselves,
or it's time to seize back control ofour destiny and work together to reverse
course.
Meeting this moment requiresunprecedented action to create the future
(00:50):
we want for our planet.
As one of the top tier researchuniversities in the country,
George Mason has announced animportant and bold new direction for
our university and for research.
Drawing on our roots as a universitythat overcame adversity to become the
youngest R1 institution and one whosponsors research funding has grown
(01:10):
significantly more than 64% since 2020,
we are launching a university-widestrategy to sharpen our focus
on humanity's most pressingissues while maximizing our
competitiveness for a dwindlingexternal research funding opportunities.
We call it our Grand Challenge Initiative.
It will take all of us workingtogether across schools, colleges,
(01:33):
and disciplines atGeorge Mason University,
in partnership with research partners inour region and throughout the world to
determine the course forour collective future.
So today we're gonna talk about it.
We're gonna dive intothis with Andre Marshall,
vice President for researchinnovation and economic impact.
In his role as the universitysenior research officer Andre,
(01:56):
who joined George Mason in 2021,
provides overall leadership for theportfolio of research innovation and
economic development activities.Prior to George Mason,
Andre served in leadership positions atthe National Science Foundation and at
the University of Maryland College Park.
He is the recipient of the NSFPresidential Early Career Award
(02:17):
in Science and Engineering (PECASE),
which is one of the most prestigiousawards a young faculty member can achieve.
And he's also the recipient of thePhilip Thomas Medal of Excellence.
And his research has been supportedby national and international funding.
Andre, thanks for joining us today.
Thank you for having me. I can'ttell you how excited I am to be here.
(02:40):
Outstanding. Well, look, I talkedabout the grand challenge issue,
but you know, we often get thequestion, what is a grand challenge? So,
given that this is a big partof your portfolio going forward,
I'm asking you what's a grand challenge?
Alright, well we spent really a lotof time thinking about this and for
(03:00):
George Mason University,from our perspective, the Grand Challenge Initiative,
it's all about the future.
And specifically as we thoughtabout kind of what that means
to operationalize this,
we developed four criteriafor what a grand challenge is.
So a grand challengeis large and enduring.
(03:23):
And what we mean by that is we are nottrying to solve the little problems.
As you say,
we are focused on the big rocks and we'renot looking for quick fixes. Alright?
We want to have a solution that lasts.
Give me an example. Notone of our solutions,
but give me a specificexample of a grand challenge.
(03:43):
A grand challenge that comesto mind would be a cure for
sickle cell, for example.
Okay.
You know, that challengeimpacts people globally.
There's a lot of suffering associatedwith that. It, it changes people's lives.
And so if you can addressthose kinds of issues,
(04:05):
you can really make a difference. Andguess what? It's big. And if you solve it,
you've solved it. And that'swhat I mean by, you know,
doing something that isbig and enduring. You know,
also a grand challenge is complex and it
requires people from not justacross the, the university,
(04:28):
but it requires external partners.
So what we mean by, youknow, this kind of complex,
interdisciplinary,
and external partner criterion is that you
can't do it alone, right? You need people,the problem is bigger than just you.
Alright,
so we got grand challengesthat are big and they
(04:53):
endure and they requiremultiple partners. Um,
and now let's talk about this thirdcriterion. And this is focused on Mason.
Look,
we need to focus on challengesthat we can really do
something about and that alignswith our strengths, our assets,
(05:14):
and our core values.
So we want things that meansomething to George Mason
University in terms of ourvalues and our expertise
and strengths. And then finally,
this fourth criterion is that wewant to move the needle and to
make a difference. So we don't want our,
(05:36):
our our activities to just be a drop inthe bucket. The things that we work on,
they're going to really make a change.They're not just going to be additive.
And so we have to be careful aboutthe problems that we choose and the
challenges that we choose so that they'realigned with our strengths and that we
can really do something.
(05:57):
So we have world classfaculty focused on a whole
host of issues, right? From povertyto health, to engineering and science.
How would you recommend we focus oureffort? I know you, you had a committee,
this committee has met for asignificant period of time,
some of our best and brightest faculty,and you all tackled this issue.
(06:20):
So talk a little bit aboutdeploying our resources and focus.
I appreciate that questionand I appreciate the intentionality of this question.
We really need to deploy our resources.
We need to deploy our entireresearch enterprise for action
and for impact,
especially considering all the headwindsthat we have right now. We've got, uh,
(06:44):
resource limitations in terms of research.
We have increased competitionfor talent and resources,
and we have changing priorities in theresearch landscape to, to be frank.
And so we have to be intentionalabout how we're gonna deploy our
resources and ourresearch enterprise. Well,
(07:05):
our faculty, they're committedto making a difference. So we,
we need to honor that they arecommitted to having an impact and
changing the world. So, youknow, that's our foundation.
That we want to do something,that the faculty care about,
that they're good at that isreally gonna make a difference.
So we put together, uh, asyou mentioned this committee,
(07:29):
we talked about so many different
possibilities of what we could do.
There were 84 different ideas that came
up.
So there,
so there was a big focusing effortthat happened to get it down to six.
To get it down to six. Therewere 84 different ideas.
(07:51):
And those were sourced not justfrom the faculty, their networks,
the external community.
We revisited thosecriteria that I mentioned.
We kind of synthesizedthose 84 into groups.
And then we did what's called the SOARanalysis, where we looked at strengths,
opportunities, aspirations,
(08:11):
and the kinds of results that wewanted in order to get things down
a little further. And whenwe put everything together,
we came up with some thrust areas.Alright? These thrust areas,
they reflected our values,they reflected our strengths,
(08:32):
they reflected things that the facultyand the researchers and our students
could get excited about. They werethings that could make a difference.
And I'm not gonna tellyou the six right now.
Yeah, yeah. We, we, I'm--
Not, I'm not, I'm gonna tellyou why I'm not gonna tell you.
No, no, no. We'll get in there.We'll get into that later.
No, but I, I just wanna say this (08:48):
a big piece of it was the money. Alright?
So I want you, you asked about resources.And so during this whole conversation,
I got a lot of pressure. It's likewe're doing, we're doing all this work,
we're being thoughtful,
but are we gonna have theresources to actually do
(09:09):
something?
And I'm so proud to say thatin addition to having the
ideas, this effort inorder to really deploy it,
as you mentioned,
has some resources behindit that are significant.
And the fact that there's some resourcesthat back up these ideas makes all the
(09:29):
difference.
So speaking of resources,
there's a lot of uncertainty right nowwith federal funding for research that
all universities are experiencing,right? We've seen caps on overhead. Uh,
we've seen reductions and grantsfor a whole myriad of reasons.
It's started with a DEI framework,but it's gone way beyond that.
(09:51):
I think a lot of people, so--
You're talking about why Iget up at two in the morning.
so I think a lot of people would bewondering why double down and make an
investment in the research space rightnow, given all of the uncertainty.
So President Washington, wereally have you to thank for that.
So I'm following your lead.I can remember, you know, more than a year ago now,
(10:14):
you actually introducing theidea that federal funding,
federal resources are gonna decline.And we need to be ready for that.
We need to be thinkingabout what are the most
important problems for us tofocus our efforts on. And so,
George Mason University, as weoften are, we are ahead of the,
(10:37):
the curve on this one. We'reorganized, we have some focus areas,
we have some resources behind this.
And even in this declining landscape,we've got a long-term plan.
You mentioned the stresses that areon our research enterprise right now.
The budget cuts, the DEI concerns,
(10:59):
the politics. Research isabout so much more than that.
Research is about discovery.It's about new knowledge,
and ultimately it's about societal benefitand making the world a better place.
And so we're not gonnafocus on these distractions.
We have to be aware of them, butwe're not gonna focus on that.
We're focused on the long game here.
(11:21):
And this Grand Challenge Initiative gives
us something to look forwardto. It's a bright spot.
It helps focus us from the distractions.
We are leading on this becausewe're not so focused on
some of these distractions,
and it gives us an opportunityto set ourselves apart.
(11:45):
Well, I think that's the key issue.
At a time when people are,
for lack of a better way ofputting this retrenching,
we are going to be investing.
That's right.
It follows the, the Warren Buffetadage. Warren Buffet says, look,
when
(12:06):
And when others are afraid, be greedy.Right? And so that is the framework,
that is the, the rationale for makingthese investments and making them now.
So access to research,
whether it's support for faculty orhands-on experiences for our students,
is a huge driver at George Mason.
How could faculty getinvolved in the initiative?
(12:28):
I'm gonna say our facultyare already involved in the
initiative. When the committee was formed,
we looked at broadrepresentation from the faculty.
We looked at senior facultyfrom across the academic units.
I talked to deans about the facultythat would be good for this.
We even had deans on the committee.
(12:50):
We had junior faculty onthe committee as well.
So their voices have alreadybeen heard in shaping
the very beginning of this. Andwe are just at the very beginning,
there's gonna be so much morethat comes out of this initiative.
It it, it really does frame whatour research is gonna look like
(13:12):
strategically for the next five to 10years here at George Mason University.
And as the effort grows,
we'll engage a broadercommunity of faculty.
In fact, we're veryintentional about that.
We've already identified champions,grand challenge champions,
(13:35):
that are going out throughoutthe university and helping people
to understand more aboutthe solution areas and
the opportunities forinvestment and connecting.
We're looking for faculty that canstart thinking about integrating
their research into these thrustareas. So they're already out there,
(13:59):
right? And while weare doing the outreach,
faculty can already bethinking, you know what?
There's this grand challenge area here.
I know I'm doing something inthis area or adjacent to it.
How can I use this Grand ChallengeInitiative to amplify that?
There was this wonderful DearPatriots letter that went out
(14:21):
at the end of April.
So the students and the facultyand everyone knows about that,
can start thinking about integratingsome of this grand challenge activity
into their curriculum, into their classes.
And what I love about this is,
at its core Grand ChallengeInitiative is a research effort.
(14:42):
And as we mature as aresearch intensive university,
we should be thinking moreabout really nucleating our
activities around research.
So having these classroomactivities that are kind of, uh,
built around or inspired by somemajor research things is super
exciting.
They can start thinkingabout the facilities and infrastructure that they might
(15:06):
need in order to really move theneedle in some of these spaces.
And our solution areas are broad.
And so thinking about how theymight collaborate across disciplines
and who their peers will be or,
or could be in these solution areaswill be great. And in the future,
(15:27):
in the fall, we're gonna have, you know,
some structured events andactivities that can really
help our faculty and studentcommunity get more engaged.
Okay. Well let's talkabout these six areas.
So there are six areas of investment that
(15:47):
in, in my opinion, are areas of grandchallenge need in the country, right?
Actually globally.
And these are areas where wehave key significant expertise,
right? We have both. So one:
advancing 21st centuryeducation for all. Two:
(16:08):
building a climateresilient society. Three:
driving responsible digital innovationand sustainable infrastructure.
Four (16:17):
improving human health, wellbeing and preparedness.
Five (16:23):
preparing for space exploration,
research and collaboration.And six: strengthening peace,
trust and engagement in democracy.
Those are the six grand challengeareas. I think they're outstanding.
Let's talk through a couple of themand highlight some of the big areas
(16:47):
that we believe we have expertise andwe will touch society in these general
areas. So first,
let's talk about advancing21st century education for
all.
Can you talk a little bit about how thecommittee came to that conclusion of,
of a grand challenge?
Mason is big. We haveover 40,000 students.
(17:09):
And so one of the biggest advantages,
some of the biggest benefitsthat we offer is education,
workforce development toour to our region and to
the country. We knowhow to do that at scale.
And that accessing 21stcentury education for all
(17:30):
is about transforming education,
breaking barriers to drive inclusivity and
access and creating theworkforce of the future. So,
okay, we do things at scale.We care about education,
we care about access, andwe care about the future.
(17:52):
And things are changing so rapidly in the
technology space.
And that's where I want to kind of talka little bit about intersectionality.
And so we've got thiswonderful new initiative in AI,
right?
And we are looking at the futureand how some of these technologies,
(18:13):
whether it's AI or whether it's quantum,
is gonna change theworkforce of the future.
And are there going to beopportunities for everyone in this
rapidly changing landscape? And so wecan bring our scale, we can bring our,
our commitment to accessand our research know-how
(18:35):
in these emerging areas likequantum, like AI, like others,
all together in order to do somethingthat's relevant and impactful,
like 21st century education for all.
There is a digital divide in the country.
And we have experts that arefocused in that space right?
Where bridging the gap with studentswho have access to technology and
(18:59):
connectivity and those whodon't, teacher shortages, right?
There are teacher shortagesall over the country.
We're one of the largest producersof educators in this region,
not just in our state.
A third of all the teachers in NorthernVirginia are Mason educated and
50% of all the leadership, right?
But then there are issues like curriculumrelevance, student mental health,
(19:22):
assessment and standardization.
These are all areas that I feelthat our faculty are well positioned
to actually tackle.
And I think we're gonna havegreat outcomes relative to this.
I I can give you one, one example,you know? Uh, in the research space,
we just had Professor Kaya,
(19:42):
who's an elementary education professor.
She is working on this digital divide,
just like you mentioned,
just received a million dollarsfrom NSF to cultivate AI literacy
through inclusivelinguistics and integrated
elementary curriculumand educational robotics.
(20:03):
Oh, that's amazing.
Yeah. So, so we're doing it.
So another one of these areas isthis whole area of building a climate
resilient society.
And then this is an area where weactually have a significant number of
outstanding scholars. And so let mehighlight what I see in this area,
and then you can talk specificallyabout what the committee, uh,
(20:24):
dealt with in terms oftheir focused efforts.
When we talk about climate resilience,
we are talking about climateresilient energy systems, right?
And that means strengthening the systemsto respond and recover to climate
related disasters, uh, you know, moreeffectively and quickly. Right? You know,
we can argue about what'scausing the climate change,
which is what we tend to bedoing in this country now.
(20:46):
Or we could really be focusedon what do we do when 40 major
storms hit our country in a yearcausing widespread destruction and loss
of life. Uh,
how do we rebuild systems that areresilient to what's coming of the
fact that our climatehas changed, you know,
for lack of a better way of putting it,
people will argue over whether climatechange is caused by man or is caused by
(21:10):
nature.
But what they're not arguing over
changing, right? You know, people seethe, the storms, they see the wildfires,
they're experiencing this.
It is so prevalent and so frequentthat you actually can't deny
that aspect. And so, uh,
building systems that are resilientto these climate change, that's,
(21:34):
that's one area where we know we haveexpertise and where we have strength.
And then there's issues of communitypreparedness that's ensuring that
vulnerable communities have the resources,
knowledge and support to adapt tothe actual changing climate, right?
And so I see a whole hostof areas plus others, right,
where we actually havesignificant expertise.
(21:54):
Talk a little bit about the committeeand what the committee thoughts were as
it relates to these issues.
So we knew that we have, and we knowthat we have strength in those areas.
And the committee spent quitea bit of time discussing our
strengths in these areas and how topull them together into a narrative
(22:16):
that we could put forward, but wewere worried about putting it forward.
Because of the word climate.
Interesting.
And we spent quite a bitof time talking about this.
And in the end,
we know that this is animportant solution to the
problem of and challenge ofcreating the future we want,
(22:40):
and it's aligned with our values and ourstrengths and we move forward with it.
I'd like to pull some ofthe things together that you
mentioned in terms of howbig this could be and how
much George Mason Universitycould do in this area.
Okay.
You talked aboutinfrastructure resilience,
(23:02):
you talked about community resilience.
We have an amazing team of climate
forecasters who are experts incomputational fluid dynamics
also. And you can pullall of that together.
Right? And, and, and not to mentionthe climate communications folks.
Ah, it's an excellent point.
(23:22):
Who, when you talk aboutengaging communities, right?
When we talk about this wholeaspect of community preparedness,
ensuring that vulnerable communitieshave the resources, knowledge,
and support to adapt, right?
That's all about how you get informationto people and how you do it in a high
quality and accessible fashion, right?
(23:44):
Let me talk a little bitabout probably the
the one that's probably mostcontroversial, right? And that is grand challenges,
uh, relative to what we'redoing in the area of peace,
trust and engagement in democracy.Peace, trust and engagement in democracy.
Because in my opinion,
(24:06):
the political climate in the countryis really changing our ability
to be successful in manyof the other areas, right?
Because the political climateis affecting our funding,
and that funding affects how we tackleall of the other grand challenges.
So we gotta deal with it. We gottatalk about it, right? And so,
so what kind of challenges are wetalking about here? The erosion of trust.
(24:28):
There's clearly declining publictrust in democratic institutions.
We actually have the faculty here whocould study, who can analyze that.
And that's declining trustin democratic institutions.
There's declining trust in the media. Uh,
the
Where, where, where we sit.
And so we have faculty whoare working in that space.
(24:48):
We have people that are working inthis general area of disinformation and
misinformation, right? Uh, we havefaculty who are studying that.
And the whole idea of the spreadof false or misleading information,
and that's amplified right now by socialmedia and, and bringing in and, uh,
those aspects of socialmedia and understanding and helping people to understand
(25:10):
what kind of tools and systems we needto have in place to thwart that and
to ensure that the public is actuallygetting accurate and actionable
information.
Yeah. These are great points. And again,
our strengths and our valuesare aligned with this.
And we have internationalclout in this space.
(25:32):
We just received or wewere just designated as
the
UN Hub for SustainableDevelopment Goal 16,
which focuses on peace,
trust and strong institutions.
So we have an internationalposition here that we can build on
(25:53):
for moving the needle in that space.
And that is through our Carter Schoolof Peace and Conflict Resolution.
But we'll draw on all of the centers and
academic units to, to fieldsof study to support this.
One thing that comes to mind is someof the nice work that Max Albanese, uh,
(26:16):
does in the area of electionsecurity. So I wanna make this point,
whether we're talking about theseareas like strengthening peace, trust,
and engagement in democracy, orbuilding a climate resilient society.
Many of the activities thatwe've been talking about,
they're what you need tobuild an ecosystem, okay?
(26:38):
When you're talking about theseareas, we can't think of 'em like, oh,
we have just a few strong faculty, orwe've got some great infrastructure.
We are looking at building ecosystemsaround these communities of
experts and partners andnetworks and infrastructure and
projects and programs thatspan research and education
(27:00):
all in this thrust area.
Because when you have that networkand that infrastructure and the talent
all there activated, that's whenyou can move the needle in a space.
And that's what we're trying to buy.
This is, this is good.
There's so many areas in this spacewhere we have really strong expertise,
voter suppression, electoralintegrity, we got experts there.
(27:23):
We got folk who are focused indealing with this issue of political
polarization. Even, uh,
when it comes to technology andsurveillance. So if you think about that,
you know, these are, you got these digitaltools and they can empower citizens,
right? But they, they also raise concernsabout privacy, about surveillance,
and about algorithmic bias in thesesystems, right? And, you know,
(27:45):
we have this whole AI initiative withthis AI group that's really strong.
But the reality is thatgroup has a focus in,
uh, for lack of a better way ofputting this, AI and integrity, right?
Yes.
AI and ethics.
Yes.
That's where this technology pieceintersects with the political realm
(28:07):
and having folk looking at theethical questions and the ethics of AI
and focused in that area,
I think we run the possibilityof being able to change,
uh, outcomes, uh, relative to that space.
Yeah.
And then finally looking atauthoritarianism and democratic
backsliding, right? We haveexpertise in that space.
(28:29):
And so the reality is that somecountries elected leaders are weakening
democratic checks and balances.
They're restricting freedom of thepress and they're eroding judicial
independence.
Being able to look at that and lookinto the effect that that will have on
societies in general, even onour own, is critical as we,
(28:51):
as we move forward. And so I thinkthese are the right six areas.
I know we didn't have timeto get into all six of them,
but you all chose an outstanding set.
We haven't even began to talk aboutsome of the more fun ones like space
exploration, right? You know?Well, so why is that important?
Because if we screw thisthing up on this planet,
(29:13):
we need to find anotherone to go to.
Right. But all kidding, all kidding aside,
these are the right areas for focus. Ithink that we're, we're gonna do really,
really well with these,
and I look forward to the greatoutcomes that our faculty will
achieve in the space.
(29:34):
So thanks, uh, for sayingthat President Washington,
I'm really excited aboutwhere we're gonna go and I'm
most excited about havinga plan and a good plan that
we all can get behind and row in the same
direction and focus onthe future and not be
(29:56):
worried about all of the thingsthat we can't do anything
about right now.
So before we close, talkabout your next steps.
We have this entity in placenow. It's been approved,
we've allocated some resources to it.
And so what are some of thenext steps as you roll this out?
(30:16):
So there are really three things thatI'd like everybody to think about as
we move forward. We're raisingawareness, we're driving engagement,
and we're making investments. Thoseare the three things that we're doing.
So the email that you sent out at theend of April really kicked off the Grand
Challenge Initiative.
(30:37):
And people are already contactingme about how can they get
involved,
what can I do right now to begin to
work on this, to be a part of thesolution? I'll give you an example.
Young man contacted mewho's president of AIAA:
the American Institute forAeronautics and Astronautics.
(31:00):
And he says, I can't tell you howexcited I am. I think he saw that space.
He saw that space solution, you know?
Yeah. He saw that one in, he,he just couldn't, uh, resist.
We got it.
is exactly what I was hoping for, right?
(31:21):
When people see researchopportunities and opportunities for
investment, oftentimes there's thisvery narrow view like, oh, okay,
there's gonna be a seedfunding opportunity.
I'm gonna write a proposaland I'm gonna get, you know,
a little bit of support to catalyze aresearch area. And we're gonna do that.
(31:41):
Okay? But we have ourentire community now.
We have a student organization that'sconnected to a national network
that's thinking about our grandchallenge solution area in space.
Could they do a student competition?
Could they host a nationalor international student
(32:03):
competition at George Mason University?
Might they want to write aproposal for that? Again,
there are ecosystemsthat I'm talking about.
So step one is awareness.What's the next step?
Driving engagement.
We have champions in each oneof these thrust areas that are
developing briefs thatkind of serve as our
(32:26):
roadmap or our foundation ofwhat each challenge is about.
And those champions are writing thoseup and then they're gonna visit local
academic units.
They're going to convenetheir networks and partners
and stakeholders with our help.
There'll be large meetings in the fallwhere we get everyone together and our
(32:49):
external networks and really help peopleunderstand what's possible with this
grand challenge opportunity.
And to make sure that people are imagining
what can happen. And the thing that Ididn't mention that I need to in the,
uh, raising awareness space and drivingengagement space is at the end of this
(33:10):
month,
we're sending out a request forinformation--an RFI--and it's just like an
idea solicitation.
We just want people to just write usand tell us what they're thinking about,
what they think they could do,alright, in the grand challenge.
That's a good step.
We'll collect all these ideas andthat's gonna help us with these
(33:30):
events early in the fall to organizepeople because we'll already know what
they're thinking and we can buildon their thoughts and add our own.
And we'll be able to haverelevant conversations in the fall
based on all these ideas.
And what's the, last, the last step.
That's the money piece: making investments. We have an investment committee. (33:49):
undefined
That's looking at puttingtogether a solicitation of sorts
that our community and stakeholderscan apply to for funding.
And that's gonna be informed by the RFI.
It's gonna be informed by our community on
(34:12):
exactly what theseinvestments may look like.
We're thinking that the investmentsmight be really high level at the
institutional level.
They could be at the team level or evenat the individual level working that
out.
Well that's great. Well, look,
this is big and I want tothank you and all of the
(34:32):
research faculty, staff,
and students who are working so hardalready on these bold solutions.
Every day we read new awards,new outcomes, new discoveries,
and they're outstanding.
And I know George Mason researchis a major reason why students
come to the university.
Every year we get more and moreapplications because we are creating
(34:55):
the access, the affordability,the flexibility,
and the opportunity for people to achievegreat things by solving problems like
the ones we've outlined today.
And that leads to a successfulcareer and a successful life.
So I am just ecstatic aboutwhere we're going with this,
and I look forward togreat things that come.
(35:16):
Thanks so much, President Washington.I really appreciate the time, uh,
that you spent the visibility thatyou're giving this important initiative,
and I'm happy to beconnected to it. Thank you.
Outstanding. I am George Mason,president Gregory Washington.
Thanks for listening.
And tune in next time for moreconversations that show why we are
(35:37):
all together different.
If you like what you heard on thispodcast, go to podcast.gmu.edu.
For more of Gregory Washington'sconversations with the thought leaders,
experts, and educators who take on thegrand challenges facing our students,
graduates and higher education.
(35:57):
That's podcast.gmu.edu.
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