The OU's Open Societal Challenges Programme aims to tackle some of the most important societal challenges of our time through impact-driven research. Our Research Challenges are grouped following our three Research Themes of Living Well, Tackling Inequalities, and Sustainability, as well as through cross-cutting thematic clusters:
Challenge US
Children and young people
Democracy and active citizenship
Disability
Health
International Development
Justice System
Machine learning and AI
MKSmart
Nature
Participatory research
PolicyWISE
Transport
Challenge US
Children and young people
The Open Societal Challenges Children and Young People Cluster features a number of dynamic research Challenges in the areas of Children’s rights and representation, education, and mental and physical health.
Democracy and active citizenship
The Democracy and Active Citizenship Cluster within the Open Societal Challenges Programme is one of the most active and builds on the outstanding work of the Citizenship and Governance Strategic Research Area. OU research in these areas is rethinking the changing relationships between citizens and authorities in the 21st century, ranging from global issues like depolarisation, to the increasing scrutiny of private lives.
Disability
Our Disability Research Challenges span the Living Well and Tackling Inequalities Themes, exploring issues of accessibility and equitability across the spectrum.
Health
Our Health Cluster covers research Challenges across the health sciences spectrum, ranging from mental health to prostate cancer. Our approach to Health research is wide-ranging, including using computational approaches and developing tools for professional learning to tackle health challenges alongside more traditional research methods.
International Development
Decades of top-down aid and development policies have failed to address global inequity and grinding poverty for billions of world citizens. Our international development research is pioneering a different approach which we call ‘inclusive innovation’. We are involving poor and marginalised people in developing their own solutions, and working with them to bring about a fairer and sustainable world. Our research in this field reflects the OU’s commitment to educational opportunity and social justice.
Justice System
The Justice Cluster within the Open Societal Challenges at the OU spans a broad set of research Challenges, with a strong focus on preventing violence and addressing online violence. The Justice Cluster also hosts a number of outstanding Challenges centred on policing.
Machine learning and AI
The Machine Learning and AI cluster collects a number of Challenges from across all three Themes of Sustainability, Living Well, and Tackling Inequalities. Challenges in this Theme work in a variety of areas, including language processing, generative AI, AI in sustainability, and image recognition.
MKSmart
Nature
Research Challenges in our Nature Cluster focus on the connection between humans and nature, and on newest-generation approaches to help preserve and care for the natural world, with a specific emphasis on tree and forest conservation.
Participatory research
Our Participatory Research Cluster within the Open Societal Challenges Programme include Challenges focused on a wide variety of different subjects across all three key Themes of Sustainability, Living Well, and Tackling Inequalities. Challenges in the Cluster are brought together by the use of participatory research methods and a shared ethos in line with the OSC bottom-up engagement approach.
PolicyWISE
PolicyWISE is a unique UK and Ireland comparative policy research and knowledge exchange initiative that changes and improves how governments and academics work together in, and across, the nations to help solve policy challenges. We are UK and Ireland by design (working across The Open University’s unique four nations base), supporting policymakers and researchers across the nations to develop relationships, respect and knowledge. PolicyWISE was developed by The Open University in collaboration with Cardiff University, Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, The University of Edinburgh, and University College London. We engaged with the Irish Government, Northern Ireland Executive, Scottish Government, UK Government and Welsh Government in developing our mission and we continue to work with our cross-nation government partners. We are proud to double-badge a number of our Challenges with PolicyWISE as they strive for exceptional impact and reach across the Nations.
Transport
The OSC’s Transport Research Cluster builds on the OU’s strengths in this area, with a focus on smart cities, sustainability, and AI-powered approaches to drive innovation.