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Feature Story Multidisciplinary Solutions to Grand Global Challenges
How multiple Purdue research teams are finding solutions to WICKED problems
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Q: What is Breaking Through?
A: In June 2016, Purdue was awarded a grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation entitled, “Breaking Through: Developing Multidisciplinary Solutions to Global Grand Challenges. ” We held a conference to celebrate the success of the pilot grant and advertise our new grant, featuring experts in the field of communication, Dr. Barbara Kline Pope and Dr. Dietram Scheufele. Building off of the success of the pilot grant (2014-2016), this current effort once again achieves the integration of humanistic expertise into the teams and project design, and will enhance the ability to effectively communicate new knowledge. Breaking Through research involves librarians, publishers, and policy experts in the research process.
Q: Why-or how- is our process academically innovative?
Q: What else did you do?
A: We are glad you asked! Our approach is unique in two ways: 1) it catalyzes collaboration between STEM researchers and scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences; and 2.) it integrates communication planning into projects from the start in order to prioritize reaching communities of interest such as policymakers, expert communities, not-forprofit and advocacy organizations, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders. The initiative supports and challenges scholars to better craft communications strategies aimed at policy makers and communities of interest.
A: Once the teams were chosen (see the four teams listed right), we held a Toolbox Dialogue Workshop. The Toolbox Initiative is a project that involves having teams come together and learning about each other. Types of communication were addressed, as well as understanding what one’s role is within the research team. The four teams spent time with each other learning how to better improve their styles of communication with each other and how to address the disciplinary vernacular in order to be effective at communicating across – and outside—of the academic disciplines.
Co-Principal Investigators
Rosalee A. Clawson
Department Head and Professor of Political Science
Abhijit Deshmukh
James J. Solberg Head and Professor of Industrial Engineering
James L. (Jim) Mullins
Dean of Libraries, Professor of Library Science, Purdue University Libraries
Melissa Remis
Professor of Anthropology
Tomás Díaz de la Rubia
Chief Scientist and Executive Director of Discovery Park
Megan Sapp Nelson
Professor of Library Sciences, Engineering Librarian, Purdue University Libraries
Projects Funded Through the 2016-2019 Mellon Grant:
Big Data Ethics Detecting Bias in Data Collection, Algorithmic Discrimination, and "Informed Refusal" :
From Global to Local to Global: Attaining Long Run Sustainability in US Agriculture:
Global Temperature Goals to Avoid Climate Tipping Points: A Serious Game to Support Serious Decisions:
Decision Support for Flood Risk Mitigation: Automated Data Collection and Visualization Tools:
Led by Chris Clifton, Professor of Computer Science, this research team is addressing grand challenges through a multidisciplinary study of the ethical issues involved in the use of big data and predictive algorithms to make decisions affecting individuals.
Led by Thomas Hertel, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics, this research team is leveraging existing knowledge, models, and data to understand and communicate the interplay between global change and local sustainability of U.S. agriculture in the context of alternative national, state, and local policies affecting agricultural productivity and environmental quality.
Led by Manjana Milkoreit, Assistant Professor of Political Science, this research team is engaging in a first-of-its-kind project that merges a creative knowledge co-production process between scientists and decision makers on urgent questions in global climate change governance and a scientific assessment of the effectiveness of this science-policy interaction.
Led by David R. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and Political Science, this research team is developing automated data collection tools and interactive decision support systems to tackle the grand challenge of increasing coastal flood risks and address the need for better risk communication.
