GCI-Grand Challenge Initiative

In spring 2025, students in EVPP 480 Sustainability in Action gave a crucial boost to Chesapeake Bay oysters by constructing oyster reef balls where the bivalves can attach, grow, and develop into natural reef structures.

An interdisciplinary George Mason University research team is breaking new ground in using artificial intelligence to develop a mobile app to accurately capture and document bruises of victims of interpersonal violence.

George Mason University has launched its Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI), a comprehensive research framework backed by an initial five-year, $15 million investment. The initiative will align university resources, faculty expertise, and educational programs around six interconnected solution areas addressing what George Mason President Gregory Washington describes as “humanity’s ultimate grand challenge”—securing a peaceful, healthy, and prosperous future.

A faculty team from several programs within the School of Education at George Mason University has been awarded a U.S. Department of Education grant to train mental health services providers in Manassas City Public Schools. The grant is part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to expand student access to mental health services in high-need K-12 public schools. 

Andre Marshall, vice president for research, innovation, and economic impact at George Mason, joins President Gregory Washington to discuss how the Grand Challenge Initiative will shape our future as an R1 institution. 

An undergraduate student-led Mason Impact project at Mason Korea results in a co-authored article published in the peer-reviewed international journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. “Accessible water quality monitoring through hybrid human–machine colorimetric methods” stems from the Mason Impact project focused on environmental conditions in the Seunggi-cheon stream in Incheon. 

Alpaslan Özerdem, dean of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, opened the 2025 Korea-U.S.-Japan Young Trilateral Leaders Regional Workshop Series, held in May at the Hiroshima Bunka Koryu Kaikan.

Before an audience of ministers, ambassadors, educators, and global innovation leaders, Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), delivered a keynote address that called for a bold, system-wide transformation of K–12 education to secure Africa’s workforce future—and the world’s.

George Mason professor Celso Ferreira recently redesigned his Flood Hazard Engineering and Adaptation course to work with community partners to deliver real projects as part of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth’s (ISE’s) NSF Accelerating Research Translation (ART) Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) Program.