Depression Grand Challenge

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge is part of a consortium tapped by Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, to conduct a scoping research project on digital sensing for mental health research.

The NIMH-funded UCLA STAND ALACRITY Center convened academics and stakeholders from UCLA, East Los Angeles College and Imperial Valley College for its second-annual ALACRITY Stakeholder Retreat on March 12, 2024 at UCLA.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge collaborated with a consortium led by The Digital Health Measurement Collaborative Community (DATAcc) by the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) to submit a proposal to Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, for the opportunity to conduct scoping research to assess how digital sensing technologies may be leveraged to detect and treat mental health conditions.

Today the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge launches a new website. The site features details about the DGC research and dissemination objectives, corresponding studies and projects, the unique operational playbook, organizational structure including stakeholders and advisors, values, recent news, and history of key milestones.

 Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, issued a request for proposals to extend the work of the digital sensing workshop, hosted at UCLA and co-sponsored by Wellcome and the National Institute of Mental Health in March 2023.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced he plans to step down from the helm of UCLA at the end of this school year, a post he has held for 17 years. Block, a neurobiologist, was particularly invested in the DGC to understand and better treat depression.

UCLA Depression Grand Challenge Executive Director Michelle Popowitz co-led a three-hour workshop at the 2023 NORDP ReCON: ForwaRD! national conference this month. The workshop, “Leveraging Campus-Scale Initiatives to Advance RD Goals: The Case Study of Grand Challenges,” featured thought leaders who had been the first to lead campus-wide grand challenge-type programs at their universities.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge appoints clinical psychologist Isabelle Lanser as the inaugural social justice policy analyst to advance the program’s commitment to justice, equity and inclusion.

Leading mental health and computer science researchers, industry experts, advocates and funders who participated in the Digital Sensing Workshop held at UCLA in the winter of 2023 are seeking additional review and input from colleagues and other stakeholders for a shared vision, common standards and recommendations they created to facilitate the use of digital sensing technologies in mental health research.

With the goal of expanding its dissemination activities, the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge secured funding from supporters to recruit a senior investigator with implementation science expertise to join the DGC executive committee.