Hacking climate change
MIT is all about making the world a better place. This special report on the Climate Grand Challenges initiative looks at how the Institute’s problem solvers are stepping up to help save the planet from the devastating effects of global warming.

Special Report
MIT Climate Grand Challenges Initiative
Profiles of the five flagship projects
In the summer of 2020, President L. Rafael Reif assigned an ambitious p-set. In launching MIT’s Climate Grand Challenges (CGC) initiative, he asked the faculty to figure out how best to mobilize MIT’s capabilities to address some of the most difficult unsolved problems in adaptation, carbon removal, climate science, climate policy, human impacts, and emissions reduction.
Nearly 400 researchers across 90% of MIT’s departments answered the call, submitting 94 proposals. The Institute gave 27 finalist teams a total of $2.7 million to develop their plans. In April it named five flagship CGC projects that will receive more funding to accelerate them—and fundraising is ongoing for both flagship and finalist projects. Here’s a look at the flagship projects and the teams that will bring them to life.
The five CGC flagship projects:
Keep Reading
Most Popular
A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?
Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk.
A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate
Make Sunsets is already attempting to earn revenue for geoengineering, a move likely to provoke widespread criticism.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023
These exclusive satellite images show that Saudi Arabia’s sci-fi megacity is well underway
Weirdly, any recent work on The Line doesn’t show up on Google Maps. But we got the images anyway.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.