Studying the Intellectual Evolution of Grand Challenges Research

Grand Challenges are some of the most pressing issues of our times. There is an urgent need to understand ways in which they can be successfully and sustainably addressed to actively build a better, more equitable world. In this study, we explored the current grand challenges research to better understand the evolution of the field and scope for future research. We conducted a multi-period bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review of the grand challenges research to chart the intellectual evolution of the field. Our bibliometric analysis comprised of 815 articles containing 48,501 cited references across three periods: 1993-2012, 2013-2016, and 2017-2020. Our systematic literature review was based on 37 recent (2017-2020) influential articles. Based on our results, we propose an integrated framework to help guide future research across six dimensions: organizational, policy, community, ethics, impact and collaborative.