The John H. Short NEXUS Core JH-Short2-2-18 | Page 2

addressing today’s challenges
The John H. Short NEXUS Core will provide a space for faculty and students, as well as industry
and community partners, to innovate as they address society’s grand challenges. The challenges
are well-known: the economics of healthcare, homelessness, supporting the family in maximizing
lifelong health and managing chronic illnesses, smart utilization of technology to facilitate aging,
combating driver distraction, innovative healthcare delivery, the effects of climate change, and
a host of other issues. All of these problems require a conversation among multiple disciplines if
we are to effectively imagine and implement solutions.
The conversation between disciplines has already begun at the University of Utah, with the
College of Social and Behavioral Science taking a leading role. As part of a university-wide call
for proposals, the college received funding to form and be part of five transformative research
groups including the Consortium for Family and Health Research, Health Economics and Policy,
Neuroscience, Society, Water, and Climate Extremes, and Biodiversity. These groups bring
faculty together across nearly every college on campus to address today’s grand challenges.
New undergraduate and graduate training programs, new federal grants, and new research
groups have formed as a result of these interdisciplinary exchanges.
interdisciplinary team science
The value of interdisciplinary team science is already coming to fruition. For instance, the
Consortium for Families and Health Research (C-FAHR) brings together nearly 100 faculty
members from 11 departments across 5 colleges. C-FAHR has initiated a faculty fellows
program (Spring of 2018) to train students in interdisciplinary approaches to research. C-FAHR
methodologists received approval to be an ICPSR summer program, a consortium of over 750
academic institutes that provides leadership and training in data access and methods of social
science research.
Learn more about C-FAHR by visiting http://www.utah.edu/faculty/c-fahr/.
A second transformative cluster team called Society, Water, and Climate focuses on the
extremes of our physical environment. Scholars are examining water as a limiting resource for
human development. There is ongoing research on climate change and air quality, the effect of
climate change on human health, well-being, forest fires, and the economic impact on industries
such as skiing and fisheries. This group won a highly competitive National Science Foundation
grant examining these issues from multiple perspectives.
Learn more about SWC by visiting http://www.utah.edu/faculty/swc/.