About Us

Big ideas live here.

W&M’s Global Research Institute empowers teams of students and faculty to make a difference in the world. We are a multidisciplinary hub that brings together academics, practitioners, and students to conduct applied research on pressing global issues. Taking a whole-of-university approach, we partner with faculty across campus in such areas as economics, business, law, public health, conservation, data science, and government.

Since the Institute’s founding in 2008, over 50 unique external partners have invested more than $70 million in GRI. Today, more than 60 faculty and staff and over 200 students conduct applied research with project collaborators such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of NY, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the World Bank, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Defense, the United Nations, among others.

GRI insights help guide the policy and strategic approach of its partners, and its findings are discussed at the highest levels of government. Analysis from GRI research labs are routinely published in elite media outlets (The Economist, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, BBC, Reuters, WSJ) and research papers are published in the leading outlets in their fields (Nature, International Organization, Oxford University Press).

Our digital brochure with more information about GRI and its 10 research labs and 40 unique, integrated student/faculty research teams is available here.

{{youtube:large:center|6k-WZQAov98,Take a three-minute trip from Liberia to Williamsburg to learn more about our work.}}