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 augment GRAND's original Five Core Capabilities established in Phase 1.

(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: IIDEMS | NMSL

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

Strategic Projects

GRAND has special projects characterized by their high risk / high reward and cross-cutting nature, as well as by their potential to have a very significant impact on the Canadian digital media sector. The projects are high-visibility co-investments with external partners. As compared with regular GRAND projects, Strategic projects have a higher degree of autonomy in allocating their resources, and are expected to have much greater engagement with and larger contributions from the receptor community.

PROJECTS: SYNTHIUS