Tackling Grand Challenges with Projects

CALL FOR PAPERS
Tackling Grand Challenges with Projects

Journal: International Journal of Project Management
Publisher: Elsevier
CiteScore: 14.2
Impact Factor: 7.5
Submission Deadline: 31 December 2026

Introduction
This Special Issue explores how projects and project management can be mobilized to tackle “grand challenges”—complex, multi‑stakeholder, global problems such as climate change, poverty, pandemics, migration, inequality, and sustainability transitions. It invites conceptual and empirical work that bridges project management and grand challenges scholarship, asking how projects can be designed, governed, and coordinated to have meaningful long‑term social and ecological impact.

Guest Editors
Lavagnon Ika (Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada)
Dror Etzion (Grossman School of Business, University of Vermont, USA)

Key Themes / Research Questions

Papers may address (but are not limited to):

• Why do grand challenge projects exist? Role of policy, global agendas (e.g., SDGs, climate targets), and public–private partnerships.

• How do grand challenge projects differ from traditional projects in terms of complexity, uncertainty, temporality, and stakeholder configuration.

• How do grand challenge projects “behave”? Dynamics of experimentation, learning, adaptation, and power across actors.

• Success and failure: What determines success or failure in grand challenge projects, and when do selectionist, instructionist, or collaborative‑rationality approaches work best?

• Complexity and uncertainty: What makes grand challenge projects uniquely difficult to manage, and how can projectification (project‑based organizing) be a boon or bane?

• Alignment and adaptation: Strategic alignment of projects with grand challenges, and how to adapt them iteratively.

• Collaboration and coordination: How collaboration among public, private, and NGO actors supports or hinders grand challenge delivery.

• Portfolios and programs: The contribution of project portfolios and programs to the realization of grand challenges.

• Any other research that deepens understanding of “tackling grand challenges with projects.”

Submission Process & Key Dates

• Submission deadline: 31 December 2026

• Submission portal: Elsevier Editorial Manager for International Journal of Project Management

  • ✔️ Select article type: “SI: Tackling Grand Challenges with Projects”

• Abstract (optional but recommended):

  • 1,000 words (references excluded)

  • Clearly state: research gap, objective, theory, methodology, and contribution

  • Email to: Lavagnon Ika: Ika@telfer.uottawa.ca

• Workshops:

  • Online workshops planned (September 2024 and September 2025) to provide feedback and discussion.

• Review process:

  • All suitable submissions undergo double‑blind peer review with at least two independent reviewers.

  • Accepted papers are published online as soon as accepted and later grouped under the Special Issue.

Guidelines & Contact

• Author guidelines:
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-project-management/publish/guide-for-authors

• Queries:

  • Lavagnon Ika (Guest Editor): Ika@telfer.uottawa.ca

About the Journal
International Journal of Project Management (IJPM), Elsevier, is a leading journal in the field, publishing high‑impact, innovative research on all aspects of project management and project‑based organizing.

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