Editor's note: The deadline for applications associated with the AIHA Grand Challenges concept papers has been extended to Dec 30. This post has been updated to reflect the new deadline.

In 2012, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced that it would hold a conference on “grand challenges,” defined as “ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology.” Since then, work has progressed on several of these projects, including the BRAIN Initiative, which seeks to identify new ways to treat Alzheimer’s and other disorders; the SunShot Grand Challenge, which is intended to make solar energy cost-competitive with coal by the end of the decade; the Asteroid Grand Challenge, intended to identify all asteroid threats to humanity; and Saving Lives at Birth, an effort to improve infant mortality in low-resource communities.

Inspired by the broad scope and visionary goals of projects like these, professional organizations in mathematics, medicine, engineering, social work, and other fields have announced their own grand challenges. AIHA launched its own initiative last year, and a recent membership survey has helped identify the following projects as grand challenges:

1. improve exposure assessment in the workplace
2. improve equity in workplaces, minimize precarious work situations, and protect vulnerable workers (such as gig workers, undocumented persons, and migrant laborers)
3. address the impacts of a changing work environment (for example, remote work)
4. mitigate the impacts of climate change on workers (such as heat stress)

These are huge issues requiring collaboration with other professions. It’s important to note that AIHA is not defining success as necessarily solving these problems; instead, AIHA is looking to achieve measurable progress within a five-to-ten-year window.

The next step is the development of concept papers on each of the four grand challenges. AIHA is currently seeking volunteers to work on these papers, which would provide background information on the topic, discuss preventive actions and potential outcomes, and propose metrics for measuring progress. More information about AIHA’s Grand Challenges initiative is available on the AIHA website.

If you’re interested in contributing to the concept papers, please submit an application—but you’ll need to hurry: the deadline is Dec 30.

Background Reading on Grand Challenges

Improve exposure assessment in the workplace

• How to Improve Exposure Judgments
• New Tools for Exposure Judgments
• Faulty Judgment
• Exposure Modeling: The Next Generation

Improve equity in workplaces, minimize precarious work situations, and protect vulnerable workers (such as gig workers, undocumented persons, and migrant laborers)

• Ending Modern Slavery: A New Role for Corporate Social Responsibility Programs

Address the impacts of a changing work environment (for example, remote work)

• After the Pandemic: Planning for a Better “Normal”
• Remote Industrial Hygiene: Emerging Challenges, Promising Solutions

Mitigate the impacts of climate change on workers (such as heat stress)

• It’s the Heat—And the Humidity: Critical Factors for Heat Stress Assessment and Prevention
• Heat Hazards: Protecting Workers in Hot Environments
• Preventing Heat-Related Illnesses: How to Reduce Heat Burden from PPE and Other Factors