The persistence of poverty around the world remains an acute challenge, raising profound practical, ethical and policy questions. The GDP is a University-wide initiative to transform Stanford’s capacity for research and action that improves the lives of the poor. Administered jointly by FSI and the Graduate School of Business, the GDP complements and broadens SEED’s mission by focusing on problems that affect conditions for entrepreneurship and innovation in developing countries: governance and the rule of law, education, public health, security, and access to public goods and services. Jesper B. Sørensen, director of SEED, and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, director of FSI, co-chair a University-appointed faculty council that solicits, evaluates and funds research proposals aimed at building institutional capacity and stimulating new lines of research. The initiative will offer large, multi-year capacity-building awards together with small seed grants for jump-starting research. Successful proposals will demonstrate commitment to addressing issues of global poverty that lead to practical and sustainable improvements in the lives of the poor.