(George et al. 2016)
Contributing to this coordinated and collaborative effort is the reason why the Grand Challenges Blog @ HEC Lausanne has been created. Our aim is to disseminate research and promote an informed public debate around a wide spectrum of grand challenges that we are so urgently called upon to face and resolve.
Solutions to such complex and interconnected problems are, however, not easy to find or implement. The lack of sufficient progress on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demonstrates the much greater need and urgency to mobilize governments, businesses, and civil society at large. So, what can we, as researchers and academics do?
As the Editorial Team we believe our role lies in disseminating and making societally relevant research more accessible to wider audiences, also outside academia. As such, we encourage you to:
We welcome interdisciplinarity both in terms of theories and methods. Furthermore, we particularly value content with a critical and reflective spirit also including perspectives from the Global South. Future contributions to the Blog may relate, among others, to the 17 SDGs, the planetary boundaries, circular economy framework, or may address alternative development pathways or challenge traditional forms of knowledge. We are looking for blog posts that contribute to a better conceptual understanding and/or provide practical resolutions to Grand Challenges in any significant manner.
As most researchers know and fear, oftentimes scientific articles struggle in reaching wider audiences and when they do, it is usually after a long publication process. A first step is therefore to transpose research findings into some more accessible formats and language e.g., via social media platforms, in a timely manner. However, social media offer rather limited space to present more developed ideas. Our Blog aims at closing these gaps by offering a space for students, researchers, and professors to discuss research findings and ideas, even if not yet published in academic journals. The ultimate goal is to enlarge our horizons of thinking and bring the best ideas closer to people inside and outside of academia, including our peers, but also practitioners, governments, NGOs and many more.
Because knowledge is like happiness: It grows only when shared!
If the above resonates with your interests, we encourage you to submit your contribution to the Grand Challenges Blog @ HEC Lausanne.
To do that, you can send content via our submission form, either in the form of a research highlight or a commentary. Research highlights are designed to summarize one of your recent papers or ongoing projects, while with commentaries you can discuss topical ideas in an opinionated but informed way. You can check out all information about submitting content here. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write us at: grandchallengesblog@unil.ch.
We are looking forward to receiving your contribution!
By Philipp Censkowsky, Arianna Pisciella, Robin Schimmelpfennig (The Editorial Team)
We categorize blog posts in research highlights, commentaries and Special Issue contributions. Research highlights may include a summary or critical discussion of your own paper that has recently been published or is in the submission process. With commentaries, you can publish critical discussions of other people’s work or opinionated but informed perspectives on topical issues or controversies. This can include responses to previous posts. So far, we have called for contributions to two Special Issues: Utopias and Science & Ideology. Check them out!
As a general rule of thumb, contributions should contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving grand challenges in any significant manner. We particularly value content with a critical, reflective and emancipatory spirit that includes perspectives on or from the Global South. The definition of the broad term grand challenges is consciously left open and we invite for critical reflection and discussion thereupon.
Who can submit and what can be submitted?
Submission length, format and language?
Submissions must directly contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving Grand Challenges in any significant way. Authors must submit a short bio including their institutional affiliation and accept the Blog’s legal disclaimer and comment’s policy.
Referencing guidelines: Kindly follow Nature referencing style to increase readability (see guidelines here, section references) or provide your references with functional hyperlinks directly in-text. You can select this referencing style in your reference management software (e.g., Zotero).
Submitting content is simple! There are three steps:
See submission form below.
2. Submit your full manuscript.
After submitting the online form, an editor will get in touch with you via email. You can then proceed to submit your full manuscript. Take care that it meets our submission requirements! Together with your full manuscript, please also submit via email to your editor:
3. Publication of the blog post.
Accepted blog posts will be published within 2-6 weeks*If you don’t have an idea for a cover photo, we’ll find one together.Expression of interest - Submit a short proposal or abstract to us and fill in the following form:
∗If you have any open questions, please directly contact an editor via email.
We categorize blog posts in research highlights, commentaries and Special Issue contributions. Research highlights may include a summary or critical discussion of your own paper that has recently been published or is in the submission process. With commentaries, you can publish critical discussions of other people’s work or opinionated but informed perspectives on topical issues or controversies. This can include responses to previous posts. So far, we have called for contributions to two Special Issues: Utopias and Science & Ideology. Check them out!
As a general rule of thumb, contributions should contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving grand challenges in any significant manner. We particularly value content with a critical, reflective and emancipatory spirit that includes perspectives on or from the Global South. The definition of the broad term grand challenges is consciously left open and we invite for critical reflection and discussion thereupon.
Who can submit and what can be submitted?
Submission length, format and language?
Submissions must directly contribute to conceptually understanding or practically resolving Grand Challenges in any significant way. Authors must submit a short bio including their institutional affiliation and accept the Blog’s legal disclaimer and comment’s policy.
Referencing guidelines: Kindly follow Nature referencing style to increase readability (see guidelines here, section references) or provide your references with functional hyperlinks directly in-text. You can select this referencing style in your reference management software (e.g., Zotero).
Submitting content is simple! There are three steps:
See submission form below.
2. Submit your full manuscript.
After submitting the online form, an editor will get in touch with you via email. You can then proceed to submit your full manuscript. Take care that it meets our submission requirements! Together with your full manuscript, please also submit via email to your editor:
3. Publication of the blog post.
Accepted blog posts will be published within 2-6 weeks*If you don’t have an idea for a cover photo, we’ll find one together.Expression of interest - Submit a short proposal or abstract to us and fill in the following form:
∗If you have any open questions, please directly contact an editor via email.