From bold ideas to lasting impact: How UNM’s original Grand Challenges teams built success

As University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes retired in July, after eight years of service, her signature Grand Challenges program has successfully advanced several key research initiatives that have enhanced the lives of New Mexicans across the state.

In November 2018, Stokes introduced the Grand Challenges initiative with an ambitious goal: to bring researchers, students, and community partners together to address some of New Mexico's most urgent and complex issues. In February 2019, UNM announced its first three Grand Challenges teams:

• Substance Use Disorders
• Sustainable Water Resources
• Successful Aging

Together, the teams became an early expression of Stokes' broader approach to leadership at UNM. The initiative asked the university research community to think beyond traditional academic boundaries and invest in work that could grow over time. What followed was not one formula for success, but three different examples of what can happen when collaboration is treated as a starting point rather than just a slogan. UNM Grand Challenges enables experts across disciplines and campuses to work together to solve real world problems.

The university's investment has had lasting reach. The program's $2.3M investment enabled a return of nearly $104 million in new funding, while also engaging more than 7,000 students and more than 400 faculty and staff researchers. As Stokes prepares to step away from the UNM presidency, the first three teams offer a meaningful way to look back at what took root during her tenure and what will continue to grow well beyond her departure.

Substance Use Disorders: Building support from campus to clinic
The Substance Use Disorders team was organized as a broad, cross-campus effort from the beginning. The team is a multidisciplinary group spanning Central Campus and the Health Sciences Center (HSC). Researchers with expertise ranging from psychology and psychiatry to medicine, nursing, policy, and communication came together to focus on one of our state's most urgent public health challenges.

The team's early research questions focused on reducing stigma, improving prevention, expanding rural access to evidence-based treatment and finding better ways to connect people to care. That broad framing mattered. In New Mexico, substance use is not only a clinical issue; it impacts families, schools, hospitals, and entire communities. The team's work reflected that reality by approaching addiction as a challenge that required both scientific rigor and human empathy.

Early Grand Challenges support helped move ideas into action. The team issued pilot funding to expand their reach across UNM, which gave researchers a chance to test ideas and build partnerships that later led to larger opportunities. Over time, that momentum helped position UNM as a leader in the field with the opportunity to go after major awards. Including millions in NIH-related funding and more than $10 million awarded for the UNM Integrative Management of chronic Pain and Opioid use disorder for Whole Recovery Center (IMPOWR) Center alone, which focuses on chronic pain and opioid use disorders, an issue that impacts New Mexico's economy and society. Notably, the UNM Collegiate Recovery Center provides a dedicated space for UNM students in recovery and also welcomes Central New Mexico (CNM) Community College students into its programs and services. It is a reminder that the legacy of a research initiative is not measured just in grants won or studies launched, but also in how people feel supported, connected and able to keep moving forward in their lives.

"Grand Challenge funding was transformational for UNM and the work that we continue to do to improve lives of individuals in New Mexico living with substance use and substance use disorders. Since 2021, New Mexico has seen a precipitous decline in deaths due to drug overdose and alcohol," says Katie Witkiewitz, director for the Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addictions (CASAA). "We achieved our goals of expanding research, education, and clinical services across UNM, [but] we still have a lot of work to do to reduce harms related to drugs and alcohol in our state."

Sustainable Water Resources: From a challenge team to an institute-building model
The Sustainable Water Resources team also began as a deeply interdisciplinary effort, drawing on biology, engineering, geography, earth sciences, economics, landscape architecture and policy. In the beginning, the team imagined the Rio Grande watershed as an international example of resilience that could support ecosystems, communities, and a thriving economy even under mounting pressure. In a state shaped by drought, wildfires, aquifer decline and competing demands, water research could change New Mexico's future.

Pilot projects funded by the team gave researchers a starting point, but the team's larger contribution may have been the collaborative model it helped normalize. Faculty were brought together around proposal development and interdisciplinary grant opportunities in ways that created a stronger long-term network.

That network is still visible today. One of the clearest examples is the Water Science Communication Fellowship, which pairs undergraduate students with mentors to create public facing projects about water science. It opened a pathway into research while also helping students think about how the general public can engage with complex scientific topics.

The same spirit can be seen in the Accelerating Resilience Innovations in Drylands (ARID) Institute. What started out as UNM's Sustainable Water Resources Grand Challenge has since taken on a more permanent institutional home. ARID is a campus-wide Category III interdisciplinary research center focused on climate resilience in New Mexico, and sustainable water remains one of its core research areas. The institute held its grand opening in 2023, giving its work a broader platform and a more durable structure for growth.

"This program provided the foundation for the ARID Institute which has positioned UNM to tackle a broader set of problems that New Mexico and drylands across the globe are facing in response to global change," says Biology Professor Marcy Litvak. "The Grand Challenge program initiated by President Stokes provided the spark for all of this."

Successful Aging: Sustaining momentum through partnerships and convening
The Successful Aging team followed a different path, but one that still reflects the same Grand Challenges spirit.

Rather than building around one center or one defining grant, the team built momentum through partnership, public engagement, and continued leadership around aging related research. Its mission was grounded in a reality that grows more important every year. New Mexico's population is aging, and with that change comes a growing need to support health, mobility, independence and quality of life for older adults across diverse communities.

The team approached that challenge with a wide lens. It looked at aging in place, access to services, technology, cognition, movement and long-term well-being as connected issues rather than separate concerns. That approach made room for researchers, clinicians, students, staff and community organizations to contribute in meaningful ways.

The team's early work included pilot projects and public outreach through lectures, presentations and community engagement tied to dementia, memory, and senior health. More recently, members of the Successful Aging team helped organize the 2024 International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research in Albuquerque, bringing international attention to UNM's work in healthy aging and reinforcing the team's role as a convener around issues that matter to families across New Mexico.

"We were honored that the Successful Aging Grand Challenge was selected for funding in the inaugural Grand Challenges initiative. President Stokes' strategic, forward-thinking investment recognized New Mexico's rapidly growing older adult population," said Debra L Waters, research professor for UNM School of Medicine, "We are deeply grateful for this support, which has enabled pilot grants, fostered interdisciplinary collaborations, and advanced innovative research through the Successful Aging Grand Challenge."

Three teams, three different kinds of legacy
Looking back, the original three Grand Challenges teams do not tell one tidy story; each team wrote its own chapter, with all working to change the lives and futures of New Mexicans. One team created momentum through treatment innovation, recovery support and major external awards. Another helped create a durable model for water and climate collaboration while drawing undergraduates into research. A third sustained its impact through partnership, outreach, and leadership in healthy aging. What ties them together is not a single outcome. The teams demonstrated that UNM is well-positioned to tackle the major issues facing our state and the world because interdisciplinary research conducted at UNM has the potential to impact humanity globally.

Since the inaugural teams were launched, 19 teams have participated in UNM's Grand Challenges. In 2021, under the direction of Vice President for Research Ellen Fisher, the program was re-imagined to broaden representation and collaboration. The initiative now uses a structured, multi-level process:

• Level 1 (Concept Teams): Teams receive planning and teambuilding funds to solidify their ideas and engage the community
• Level 2 (Implementation Teams): Teams receive substantial seed funding (up to $200,000) to execute research and build capacity
• Level 3 (Centers/Institutes): Teams graduate to large, sustainable research structures

As President Stokes leaves UNM, the original UNM Grand Challenges teams represent more than the program's early years. They reflect a bold vision that challenged Lobo researchers to look beyond their individual disciplines and tackle issues that matter deeply to New Mexicans. Just six years later, their work stands as a reminder of what the Grand Challenges initiative set out to do: bring people together around complex problems and create meaningful change for the state. That legacy began with the three original challenges launched under President Stokes.