GRAND's Research Program addresses seven problem areas or "Challenges" deemed of strategic importance to Canada. Each Challenge is addressed through a number of projects focused on one or more specific issues within the overall problem area. Led by academic experts, each project has industry partners and other stakeholder representatives who help define, execute, and evaluate the research activities. These Seven Challenges introduced in GRAND's Phase 2 augment GRAND's original Five Core Capabilities established in PHASE 1.

The transition to Phase 2 projects began in 2014 and will continue into 2015. It is expected that these GRAND-initiated projects will apply for future funding under other programs after GRAND completes its NCE funding. For information about the future of GRAND, please see the Reboot Project.

GRAND has also introduced a new kind of collaborative research project called SPARK-GAP. Involving significant co-investment from industry partners, the scope and crosscutting nature of these projects is intended to make a significant impact on the Canadian digital media sector.

PHASE 2: Themes and Projects

(Big) Data Living with Big Data Leader: Charles Clarke Co-leader: Sean Gouglas PROJECTS: AVID | DIGHUM | PLATFORM2 | SENSE-I

Citizenship Digital Citizenship and Civic Engagement Leader: Sam Trosow Co-leader (Acting): Catherine Middleton PROJECTS: NEWS2 | PROTECT

Entertainment Entertainment in an Always-Connected World Leader: Pierre Poulin Co-leader: Regan Mandryk PROJECTS: BELIEVE2 | CREATE | DATUM

Health Patient-centred Healthcare and Wellness Leader: Diane Gromala Co-leader: Nicholas Graham PROJECTS: CHRONIC | G4HLTH | HLTHSIM2 | INCLUDE2

Learning Learning in the Digital Age Leader: Jennifer Jenson Co-leader: Carl Gutwin PROJECTS: CONNECT | ENGAGE | KIDZ

Sustainability Building Sustainable Communities Leader: Lyn Bartram Co-leader (Acting): Robert Woodbury PROJECTS: HEAP | IIDEMS | NMSL

Work Work in a Global Economy Leader: Bart Simon Co-leader: Jeremy Cooperstock PROJECTS: EXPERT | INDIEGAME | KNOW | SHREXP

Alliance Projects (SPARK-GAP) Large-scale, high-profile research collaborations tightly coupled with industry partners SPARK-GAP projects represent the natural evolution of GRAND networking activities. These large-scale, high profile collaborations formalize relationships between researchers and partners who have identified a common, challenging, high-risk, and high-impact research objective that spans the competencies of the GRAND network and beyond. PROJECTS: SYNTHIUS