Overview
The Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) is a combined curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular targeted experiential program with five competencies that are designed to prepare the next generation of students for addressing the grand challenges facing society. The GCSP is an international initiative that takes place at universities across the globe. Each institution creates their own specific realization of how the competencies are implemented, which are approved by the GCSP steering committee.
In the Fall of 2019, McMaster University joined and implemented the GCSP as the first Canadian institution and a key component of The Pivot.
What is Grand Challenges?
The McMaster Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) is the first of its kind in Canada and supports the commitment to educate engaged citizen scholars who will transform our world. The GCSP is an experiential-learning initiative that spans across students’ entire undergraduate careers. The program strives to prepare students, not only for the challenges that the world currently faces, but also for the challenges that our planet will face in the coming years. The McMaster GCSP is a Canadian exemplar for educating future leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are imbued with global perspectives and social awareness.
Over their degree, students will engage in enriching courses, deep reflection, and related experiences outside of the classroom in order to develop their exceptional skills in five key competencies:
- Discover+Create
- Integrate+Solve
- Business+Innovate
- Global+Diverse
- Citizen+Community

At the end of their degree, students will have developed a portfolio that documents their journey through the program. Students will also be awarded with certification, and their status as Grand Challenges Scholars will be recognized globally.
The Grand Challenges Scholars Program is open to students from all faculties and has no cost for enrolment. This program is supported by the Faculty of Engineering.
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Become a Grand Challenges Scholar and develop these skills:
- Realize your potential
- Work with students from different disciplinary backgrounds
- Solve multi-faceted problems
- Embrace ambiguity as you move beyond the classroom into the real world
- Create real and sustainable change in your own community
- Develop solutions to grand challenges that contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
In September 2015, Canada along with 192 other UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda envisions a secure world free of poverty and hunger, with full and productive employment, access to quality education and universal health coverage, the achievement of gender equality of opportunity and the empowerment of all women and girls, and an end to environmental degradation. By enrolling in the GCSP, students will be taking on the grand challenges posed by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Other Institutions Involved
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Duke University
- Auburn University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- National University of Singapore
Grand Challenges – The Five GCSP Competencies
The Five GCSP Competencies
Students who complete the McMaster GCSP with have successfully demonstrated competencies in the following areas:
Discover + Create Learn more
Mentored research or project experience.
Discover+Create
In demonstrating this competency, a student must complete a research/creative experience, such as a design project or research paper, focused on contributing to one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The ability to conduct research professionally, ethically, and effectively is an important foundation in synthesizing engineering solutions. By conducting thoughtful research, we can identify critical challenges and necessary strategies with precision.
This experience must be documented in a scholarly piece of work, such as a final report, a portfolio, or a paper. Students must regularly meet with stakeholders, mentors, or experts during these experiences.
The outcomes of this competency include:
• Conducting a thoughtful review of existing knowledge to inform one’s practice
• Evaluating/analyzing current practice to identify areas of contribution
• Synthesizing robust solutions/proposals to ambiguous complex problems
Integrate + Solve Learn more
Understand and bridge multiple and diverse ways of defining problems and posing solutions.
Integrate+Solve
In demonstrating this competency, a student must exhibit an understanding that engineering solutions require more expertise than only that of an engineer to be successfully implemented into society.
Teams in the professional world consist of members from differing areas of expertise and lived experiences. The ability to move forward alongside colleagues and identify how they can fill the gaps in our own expertise is critical to the success of an effective team member.
This understanding is to be gained through immersive, collaborative experiences with colleagues outside of one’s own discipline.
The outcomes of this competency include:
• Collaborating effectively with colleagues from other disciplinary backgrounds
• Recognizing how expertise from other disciplinary backgrounds can remedy gaps in one’s own expertise
• Identifying the expertise needed to create a feasible solution to a complex problem
Business + Innovate Learn more
Understand importance of viable business models in engineering.
Business+Innovate
In demonstrating this competency, a student must display an understanding that solutions to complex problems require viable financial models in order be successfully implemented into society.
Solutions require stakeholders, most of whom will need to make monetary contributions in order to successfully implement these solutions. When proposing solutions to complex problems, it is critical to identify ongoing sources of income and expenses in order to create a plan that will be financially viable throughout the lifetime of the solutions.
This understanding is to be gained through examination and presentation of economic strategies necessary in implementing grand solutions.
The outcomes of this competency include:
• Describing the role of stakeholders in a complex problem
• Identifying sources of start-up costs, operating costs, and/or revenue in a robust solution
• Creating a viable financial model for a solution to a complex problem
Global + Diverse Learn more
Understanding that considering cultural issues is mandatory in engineering solutions.
Global+Diverse
In demonstrating this competency, a student must convey an understanding that solutions to complex problems require a critical examination of the culture where they are to be implemented in order to ensure these solutions are ethical, desirable, and viable.
As a citizen of a global community, it is important to recognize and learn from different cultures that have functioned effectively for centuries. We do this for the purposes of integrating new knowledge into our own, as well as informing our practice for when we are actively involved in other cultures.
Achievement of this competency is to be gained through experiences that immerse students in unfamiliar cultures and lead to transformative experiences.
The outcomes of this competency include:
• Identifying unique values/principles from other cultures
• Incorporating aspects of another culture into one’s own practice
• Adapting one’s practice to work effectively in another culture
Citizen + Community Learn more
Deepen social consciousness to address societal problems.
Citizen+Community
In demonstrating this competency, a student must demonstrate an understanding that engineering solutions primarily serve the best interests of people and society.
The role of a global citizen is to maintain or improve the wellbeing of the public through action. However, when we decide to act, that action comes at the cost of refusing many other actions. This concept of cost can be extended to generating solutions. It is our responsibility to weigh the cost of our actions in order to determine options that provide the greatest benefit in exchange for the least amount of negative consequences.
Achievement of this competency is to be gained through experiences that deepen one’s social consciousness and motivation to address societal problems. Learning obtained through public service is preferred, as serving people is the vision of the Grand Challenges.
The outcomes of this competency include:
• Identifying the role of a responsible citizen
• Reflecting on intrapersonal development (i.e. empathy, reciprocity, etc.)
• Describing the qualitative and quantitative benefits and costs of a solution/service
Grand Challenges – Program Requirements
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In order to complete the GCSP program, students must achieve a combination of the following credentials that demonstrates engagement across all competencies, with scholarly level engagement in at least two competencies.
Foundational (1 point)
This credential is awarded to a student that has demonstrated an essential understanding of a GCSP competency.
Visionary (2 points)
This credential is awarded to a student that has demonstrated a deep understanding of a GCSP competency.
Scholarly (3 points)
This credential is awarded to a student that has demonstrated excellent achievement of a GCSP competency
To successfully complete the GCSP, students must earn at least two Scholarly credits and must possess no more than two Foundational credits. Each level of engagement stacks upon the previous iteration, demonstrating increasing achievement of a competency.
Students may earn GCSP points by the following means:
Expandable List
McMaster University offers hundreds of courses that provide enriching experiences rooted in the five competencies, as represented in the MGCSP Course Catalogue. Completion of a course offered in the catalogue will reward students with up to the number of points indicated by the catalogue, pending the submission and approval of the students’ reflections on those courses.
McMaster University provides many valuable learning opportunities outside of the classroom. Some of these experiences may be counted as points towards a competency. Experiences will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may include the following examples:
- Studying/working abroad: 1 point towards Global+Diverse per academic term.
- Service (volunteering, tutoring, etc.) with local organizations: 1 point towards Citizen+Community per academic term.
- Laboratory/research position: 1 point towards Discover+Create per academic term (2 points per academic term if full-time).
- Obtaining a provisional patent: 1 point towards Business+Innovate.
Grand Challenges – Get Active
Expandable List
ACTIVE projects– Students who complete the GCSP will have successfully completed an ACTIVE project. While the specifics of an ACTIVE project may change from student to student, a project must meet several requirements:
A project is completed in consultation with a mentor that guides the student towards a feasible implementation in the real world.
A project exhibits a thorough consideration of the culture in which it is to be implemented.
A project leads to a proposal/prototype that is mechanical, physical or scientific in nature.
A project leads to a proposal/prototype that clearly contributes towards one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
A project leads to a proposal/prototype with a sustainable financial plan.
A project must take place in an experiential learning environment, with a substantial time commitment of at least 60 hours over the course of the project. McMaster’s criteria for experiential learning are as follows:
- The student is in a workplace or simulated workplace
- The student is exposed to authentic demands that improve their employability, interpersonal skills and transition to the workforce
- The experience is structured with purposeful and meaningful activities
- The student applies the university program knowledge and/or essential employability skills
- The experience includes self-assessment and evaluation of the student’s performance and learning outcomes by the employer and/or university
- The experience counts towards course credit or credential completionOR is formally recognized by the university as meeting the above 5 criteria
NOTE: MacChangers is the primary option for the ACTIVE Project requirement of the GCSP (and will be applied retroactively to those who have already completed MacChangers). Other ways to satisfy this requirement will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Grand Challenges – Timeline
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Stage 1
Complete courses and experiences listed in the GCSP Catalogue, and/or an ACTIVE project
Enrolment
In your penultimate year, apply for entry into the program by demonstrating partial achievement of the competencies and/or completion of an ACTIVE project
Stage 2
Continue completion of courses and experiences and/or ACTIVE project, build your portfolio by submitting reflections after each completed item
The Grand Challenges Scholars Program spans an undergraduate student’s degree (3- 5 year program). During the first stage of the program, students complete courses from the Course Catalogue that contribute towards the five GCSP competencies. While there is no requirement to report these experiences at this stage, GCSP staff members are available to guide and assist students.
Students apply for entry into the program in their penultimate year, including deep reflections of the experiences that they have completed and how those experiences have helped them in acquiring the five GCSP competencies. Once enrolled in the program, students actively participate in the program by continuing to develop their competencies and submitting reflections at least once per academic term.
Following enrolment, students spend the final two years of their degrees solidifying their expertise in the GCSP competencies and building a portfolio of their journey by submitting reflections along the way. Once scholars have met or surpassed the requirements of the program, they will be issued certification around the time of their graduation.
Note: an ACTIVE project may be completed at either Stage of the program.
Grand Challenges – Contact Us
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Location
Location:
John Hodgins Engineering Building 216
McMaster University
1280 Main St W, Unit 38
Hamilton ON L8S 4M4
Email: changers@mcmaster.ca
Phone: 905 525 9140 ext. 24635