The University of Oxford’s most generous benefactor has put an additional $50-million on the table, promising to match donations of at least $1- million over the next year to the university’s James Martin 21st Century School.

In 2005, Mr. Martin, a 1955 graduate of Oxford’s Keble College, donated $100-million to his alma mater to finance a new school to examine problems and opportunities of the 21st century through interdisciplinary study.

“At the time it was set up, there was almost no interdisciplinary scholarship in any university,” Mr. Martin said in a telephone interview this afternoon. “It’s doing so well that now is the moment to put a foot on the accelerator, even though, if you were to just look at the economy, you would probably do nothing for the next two years.”

The school now has 15 interdisciplinary research institutes that focus on subjects including climate change, global health, and science and technology. Mr. Martin has pledged to match donations up to a total of $50-million. He said today that despite the gloomy economic climate, the school had already received its first donation, for an institute to study the future of cities from a social and political point of view, as well as from a design and environmental perspective.

Although he is based in the United States, Mr. Martin chose to establish the 21st Century School at Oxford because the university seemed ideally suited to the school’s multidisciplinary approach. “Oxford has always been very heavily involved in politics and changing society,” he said. “It’s a place where they are comfortable combining advanced physics, computing, sociology, and politics.” —Aisha Labi