Policy-driven projects: Empowering the world to confront grand challenges

Abstract

The world is beset by grand challenges, those messy, multi-stakeholder, value-laden, complex, wicked, and constantly evolving problems like climate change, unsustainable development, economic inequality, and global pandemics. While these grand challenges call for projects to translate policies into actions and changes, these projects tend to fall short of their ‘beautiful’ goals- such as the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, the management literature remains mostly silent about the role of projects and project delivery in tackling grand challenges. In this article, we discuss the contribution of projects to grand challenges and ask what type of project management they demand, particularly in Europe. In light of the sheer complexity and interdependency of grand challenges and the projects they provoke, we call for further collaboration between project scholars and management scholars to help policymakers shape a better world where no one is left behind.