Megan Gunnar, Ph.D., director of the Institute of Child Development (ICD), and Jed Elison, Ph.D., an assistant professor in ICD, are recipients of Grand Challenges Research grants from the University of Minnesota (U of M).

The two-year grants, which were announced by U of M Provost Karen Hanson on Sept. 29, aim to support interdisciplinary collaborations that address local and global challenges. Overall, 29 teams of faculty were selected to receive Grand Challenges Research grants totaling $3.6 million.

Gunnar will be a co-principal investigator for an interdisciplinary work group collaboration, “Reminders for Readiness: E-communication to support parents in promoting early childhood development.” Amy Susman-Stillman, Ph.D., a research associate with ICD’s Center for Early Education and Development, also will be a member of the project team.

Reminders for Readiness (R4R) addresses the challenge of ensuring that parents have access to essential information and resources that will help them support their child’s growth. Specifically, R4R will develop, implement and evaluate the usefulness of a text messaging system for parents of infants and toddlers, focusing on reaching underserved parents.

Elison will be a co-principal investigator for the project “Cracking the speech code: A cross-linguistic neurobehavioral approach to language learning in typical and atypical populations.” The project represents a collaborative approach to identifying biomarkers of early emerging language processing deficits. Early identification could lead to more tailored interventions, increasing the likelihood of positive outcomes.