The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has launched its aptly named "Campaign for a Better World" that aims to raise $5 billion so the institution long synonymous with the words genius and science can help make the world a better place.

MIT President L. Rafael Reif described the campaign as "a comprehensive fundraising initiative that will amplify the Institute's distinctive strength in education, research, and innovation, and will advance MIT's work on some of the world's biggest challenges."

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The campaign is guided by six priority areas: Discovery Science; Health of the Planet; Human Health; Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Teaching, Learning, and Living and the MIT Core.

While the campaign has just been officially launched, MIT has amassed a tidy sum from its alumni. Reif said MIT has raised over $2.6 billion toward the campaign goal as of the end of the first quarter of 2016, with gifts coming from more than 77,000 alumni and friends.

The $5 billion, said Reif, will enable a future where fundamental science unlocks new knowledge. It will also bring about results where climate change yields to climate action; where clean energy is universal; where everyone can count on clean water and nourishing food; where diseases are detected before it has symptoms and where Alzheimer's is just a memory.

The campaign will also help ensure good ideas don't languish in the lab but flourish in the marketplace and allow daring companies create thriving industries and achieve lasting progress.

On another note, the campaign will see prosperity is measured not in dollars but in the currency of art, culture and understanding. It will make quality education radically more available.

The campaign is also committed to strengthening MIT's core -- increasing resources for undergraduate financial aid, graduate fellowships and professorships; reimagining residential living and educational spaces and developing innovative research facilities like MIT.nano.

"Humanity faces urgent challenges-challenges whose solutions depend on marrying advanced technical and scientific capabilities with a deep understanding of the world's political, cultural, and economic complexities," said Reif.

"This campaign will have far-reaching positive implications for the world at large," said Robert Millard '73, chair of the MIT Corporation.

"It is an opportunity to re-inspire, reenergize, and recommit the MIT community to our shared vision and values, while amplifying the power of our students, faculty, and staff to shape the future by providing them with the resources they need to do their best work."

TagsMassachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Campaign for a Better World, MIT President L. Rafael Reif