A program designed to foster innovation in international research at Stanford has awarded $1 million in grants to research teams headed by faculty members.

The grants are from Stanford's Presidential Fund for Innovation in International Studies.

"These projects have great potential to advance academic knowledge, social capital and human development around the world, and to create a healthier, more promising future for hundreds of millions of people," Stanford President John Hennessy said.

"When we launched The Stanford Challenge (a fund-raising effort), we committed to marshal university resources to address the great challenges of the 21st century in human health, the environment and international affairs, and it is gratifying to see the response from our remarkable faculty."

The four research projects, and their principal investigators, are:

• "Enhancing Health Security Through Infrastructure and Behavioral Intervention: Water, Sanitation and Child Survival in Africa" by Alexandria Boehm and Jenna Davis, civil and environmental engineering; Abby King, health research and policy and medicine, and Gary Schoolnik, medicine and microbiology and immunology.

• "Why Are Indian Firms Poorly Managed? A Survey and Randomized Field Intervention" by Nicholas Bloom and Aprajit Mahajan, economics; Thomas Heller and Erik Jensen, law school, and John Roberts, graduate school of business.

• "Courts, Politics and Human Rights" by Joshua Cohen, philosophy, political science and law school; Terry Karl, political science, and Jenny S. Martinez, law school.

• "The Middle East and World Economy" by Matthew Harding, economics, and Lisa Blaydes, political science.

-- Don Kazak