Hacking climate change

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:

• Sounding the alarm, bolstering defenses
• Going after the big four
• Predicting—and preparing for—the worst
• Making agriculture greener
• Building a weather app for climate change