Connaught Global Challenge

Three leading researchers recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Awards

lanthierj — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 15:55:25 +0000

Three leading researchers recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Awards

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 11/21/2022 - 10:55

Faculty

Mississauga

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Department of Historical Studies

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

landscape

Three University of Toronto researchers are receiving Connaught Global Challenge Awards for projects addressing sustainable housing in First Nations communities, the role of automation and technology in health care and how humanistic research can promote equity in the present by exploring the diversity of the past.

This year’s winners and their projects are:

Sarah Haines, department of civil and mineral engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – From Harvest to House: Developing a Pathway to Housing Self-sufficiency in Remote First Nations Communities
Ajay Rao, department of historical studies, U of T Mississauga – The Global Past
Abi Sriharan, Dalla Lana School of Public Health – Future of Work in the Healthcare Sector in the Age of Intelligent Machines and Technologies (FORESIGHT)

“Sarah Haines, Ajay Rao and Abi Sriharan are advancing knowledge and developing innovative solutions to key challenges in Canada and around the world,” says Leah Cowen, vice-president of research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “The projects they are working on across disciplines with colleagues, students and partners in Canada and around the world will have a significant global impact.”

Rao is also the recipient of the Connaught Global Research Impact Program (C-GRIP) award, created to provide graduate students and post-doctoral researchers with unique global opportunities. Rao’s project includes scholars from across U of T’s three campuses and establishes partnerships with researchers of the premodern world in Egypt, India and Singapore.

The Connaught Global Challenge is supported by the Connaught Fund – the largest internal university research funding program in Canada. Established 50 years ago through the sale of Connaught Medical Research Laboratories, which is known for the development of insulin, the fund has since provided more than $178.7 million to U of T scholars through programs such as the Connaught New Researcher Award, the Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program, the Connaught Innovation Award, the McLean Award and international doctoral scholarships.

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Fiona Miller recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 22:14:38 +0000

Fiona Miller recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 10/22/2021 - 18:14

Faculty

St. George

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Connaught Global Challenge

landscape

(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Fiona Miller, an expert in the field of sustainability and health care, has received a Connaught Global Challenge Award to support her efforts to create an international research network for climate positive health care.

Miller is one of four researchers receiving the award for collaborations involving leading University of Toronto researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

In Canada, as in many countries, the health-care sector accounts for about five per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Miller, a professor with U of T's Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, says it will take deep interdisciplinary collaboration to bring about a carbon positive health system.

That’s where the International Research Network for Climate Positive Care (IRNCPC) comes in, Miller says.

The IRNCPC will bring together world-leading experts across the physical, social and health sciences to produce the evidence, ideas and innovations required for health systems to meet net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets. The network will co-ordinate U of T research and capacity development, Miller says, and build robust national and international connections focusing on three research themes:

A sustainable pharmaceuticals and healthcare plastics ecosystem
Sustainable and resilient built health-care environments
Health service and system innovation for sustainable care.

“We’re tremendously excited to have the opportunity to develop the research and training capacity that can support and advance the increasingly ambitious climate goals of health care organizations and systems in Canada and around the world,” Miller said. “This award will truly make a difference locally, nationally and internationally.”

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Kamran Behdinan recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 21:41:31 +0000

Kamran Behdinan recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 10/22/2021 - 17:41

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

landscape

(Photo courtesy of Kamran Behdinan)

Kamran Behdinan, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and an expert on harvesting biomechanical energies from physical movements, is the recipient of a Connaught Global Challenge Award.

Behdinan, who is researching battery-free wearable and implantable devices, aims to create a multidisciplinary global network of experts in the field of energy harvesting for biomedical applications. He is one of four researchers receiving the award for collaborations involving leading University of Toronto researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

“Through collaboration, this network will speed up the development of new devices and train a new generation of experts in this emerging field,” he says. “Harvesting energy from body movement is an efficient and promising technique, and a crucial step toward true self-powered devices.”

Behdinan and his team design piezoelectric energy harvesters which can be configured to generate electricity from repeated human movements such as walking, or even the regular expansion and contraction of lung and heart tissue. In the future, electricity generated in this way could be used to provide power for various medical devices such as implantable glucose meters, artificial retina systems, smart contact lenses or even cardiac pacemakers.

“Implantable or wearable electronic devices need to be highly biocompatible, resilient and efficient,” says Behdinan, who heads the Advanced Research Laboratory for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures. “We’re getting there: current devices are very small and have low power requirements. But the need for battery power is a real bottleneck. Batteries are bulky, and they need to be replaced regularly, which interrupts the operation of the device. Also, if they leak, they can be very toxic.”

Read the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering story

Engineering

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Kristin Cleverley recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 20:15:51 +0000

Kristin Cleverley recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 10/22/2021 - 16:15

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

landscape

Kristin Cleverley, a leading researcher in student and youth mental health at the University of Toronto has received the Connaught Global Challenge Award for her project: Building a Global Research Network to Advance Student and Youth Mental Health.

Cleverley is one of four researchers receiving the award for collaborations involving leading U of T researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

“This is an exciting opportunity to bring together international researchers with shared expertise to move the state of the science on student mental health,” says Cleverley, an assistant professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing who is also chair of the Inlight Student Mental Health Research Initiative, a new Institutional Strategic Initiative at U of T.

“Leveraging the foundation we have built through the strategic initiative will enable us to focus on co-designing and collaborating with students and researchers on a global scale to solve our shared challenges.”

Cleverley is one of the inaugural recipients of the Connaught Global Research Impact Program Award (C-GRIP), a new funding stream to support international training opportunities.

“With the Connaught Global Challenge Award and the new Global Research Impact Program, we are uniquely positioned to create a talent pipeline of the next generation of student mental health researchers,” Cleverley says.

Read the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing story

Nursing

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Lisa Forman, Kamran Behdinan, Kristin Cleverley and Fiona Miller receive Connaught Global Challenge Awards

lanthierj — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 16:17:10 +0000

Lisa Forman, Kamran Behdinan, Kristin Cleverley and Fiona Miller receive Connaught Global Challenge Awards

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 10/22/2021 - 12:17

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Lawrence S. Bloomberg School of Nursing

Institute of Health Policy

Management and Evaluation

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

landscape

(Clockwise from top L): Lisa Forman, Kamran Behdinan, Kristin Cleverley and Fiona Miller

Four University of Toronto researchers are receiving the Connaught Global Challenge Award, supporting projects that explore everything from student mental health to the impact of health care on climate, access to COVID-19 vaccines and energy harvesting technologies for biomedical applications.

“The Connaught Global Challenge Award recognizes leading researchers who are working across disciplines with colleagues, students and thought leaders, making significant contributions to society by advancing knowledge and developing innovative solutions to some of the world's most complex challenges,” says Professor Alex Mihailidis, associate vice-president, international partnerships.

“I'm delighted that this year's winners include the first recipients of the Connaught Global Research Impact Program (C-GRIP) award, funded by Office of the Vice-President International to provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with unique global opportunities by supporting global mobility and exchange.”

This year’s winners and their projects are:

Kamran Behdinan, department of mechanical and industrial engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering: Advanced Technology for Harvesting in Biomedical Device Applications
Kristin Cleverley, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing: Building a Global Research Network to Advance Student and Youth Mental Health (C-GRIP)
Lisa Forman, Dalla Lana School of Public Health: Advancing Rights-based Access to COVID Vaccines as part of Universal Health Coverage (C-GRIP)
Fiona Miller, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health: Research Capacity for a Climate Positive Health System: The International Research Network for Climate Positive Care

The Connaught Global Challenge is supported by the Connaught Fund – the largest, internal university research funding program in Canada. Established in 1972 through the sale of the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories, the fund has provided nearly $170 million to U of T scholars through a range of programs including the Connaught New Researcher Award, the Connaught Community Partnerships Research Program, the Connaught Innovation Award, the McLean Award and international doctoral scholarships.

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Lisa Forman recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 13:15:51 +0000

Lisa Forman recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 10/22/2021 - 09:15

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty of Law

landscape

International human rights scholar Lisa Forman has received a Connaught Global Challenge Award for her project Advancing Rights-based Access to COVID Vaccines as part of Universal Health Coverage.

Forman is one of four researchers receiving the award for collaborations involving leading University of Toronto researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

An associate professor at U of T's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Forman says disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines in low and middle-income countries are emerging as the pandemic’s biggest human rights and equity challenge.

Through the Connaught Global Research Impact Program (C-GRIP), which provides additional funding for Global Challenge teams who partner internationally, Forman will bring together a leading group of international human rights law and global health policy experts to advance an interdisciplinary and innovative human rights research program on COVID-19 vaccines as a central element of universal health coverage.

“The objective is to develop strategies for civil society and policy-makers to help alleviate these disparities,” Forman says. “It’s tremendously unjust that so many low and middle-income countries have so little access to the vaccines which are transforming COVID elsewhere. And it’s simply poor global health practice for there to be such disparate access to vaccines when it comes to a global pandemic.”

The program, which will create unique training opportunities for U of T students, will be housed at the Dalla Lana School in partnership with U of T's Faculty of Law, Warwick University Faculty of Law in the United Kingdom, the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development in Uganda, and in collaboration with the Global Health Law Consortium in Canada.

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Jillian Kohler recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 19:06:12 +0000

Jillian Kohler recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 10/05/2020 - 15:06

Faculty

St. George

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Connaught Global Challenge

landscape

Professor Jillian Kohler of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has received a Connaught Global Challenge Award for her project, Advancing Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms to Tackle Corruption in the Pharmaceutical System.

Kohler is one of five researchers receiving the award for collaborations involving leading U of T researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

The award will allow her to enhance her multidisciplinary research network to include more international collaborations and develop new training opportunities for students and young researchers.

The director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Transparency and Accountability in the Pharmaceutical Sector at U of T, Kohler is an expert on corruption in the pharmaceutical sector. She says that while corruption has long been a silent risk to the pharmaceutical sector and access to medicines, the pandemic has made it a more pressing issue.

“In an emergency situation, oftentimes emergency procedures are in place and standards are relaxed, and that can potentially create more opportunities for corruption,” Kohler says. “We need this network and this research now more than ever, when we’re dealing with health systems that are being slammed by this pandemic.”

Read the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy story

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Shana Kelley recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:57:12 +0000

Shana Kelley recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 10/05/2020 - 14:57

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

landscape

(photo by Steve Southon)

University Professor Shana Kelley of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has received a Connaught Global Challenge Award for her project, Global Perspectives to Advance Precision Medicine.

Kelley is one of five researchers receiving the award for their collaborations involving leading U of T researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors. The award will allow PRiME, a multidisciplinary initiative led by Kelley, to build new international collaborations that will accelerate drug discovery and technology development.

PRiME will establish a speaker series, a trainee exchange program between partner institutions, and a program for undergraduate students to gain hands-on experience in labs of PRiME researchers. The new collaborations and training opportunities will help the group share knowledge and generate new discoveries to understand the biology of disease, create new diagnostic tools and develop new therapeutic strategies.

“We are very grateful to the Connaught Global Challenge Program for the support of our effort to establish new partnerships with several of the best universities in the world,” Kelley said. “The Connaught-funded effort will connect our faculty with outstanding collaborators around the world and will give our trainees opportunities to broaden their networks and access critical expertise.”

Read the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy story

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Timothy Chan recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:43:44 +0000

Timothy Chan recognized with Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 10/05/2020 - 14:43

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

landscape

(photo by Tyler Irving)

Professor Timothy Chan of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering has won a Connaught Global Challenge Award for his project, High-Performance Analytics for High-Performance Sports.

“With the rise of advanced video tracking and wearable devices, sports teams have more data than ever before,” says Chan. “The challenge now is for them to interpret, analyze and make use of this data, to transform it into valuable insights.

“My hope is that this award lays a solid foundation for team-building across campus, and sets the university up to be a world leader in this growing area.”

Chan's team includes physicians, kinesiologists, economists, mathematicians, management experts, and computer scientists and partners from professional and amateur sports and the emerging sports tech sector. The two-year project includes symposiums and summer schools to help train the next generation of experts in sports analytics.

Sports analytics is a field that suffers from academic silos, insufficient numbers of trainees to meet large industry demand, and lack of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), Chan says.

“Our focus on EDI will lead to better and fairer opportunities for all, including trainees, athletes, coaches, employers and parents. Our project will lead to new ways to quantify the benefits and risk of sports, guide injury prevention and treatment approaches, and encourage positive health behaviours.”

Read the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering story

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off

Five U of T researchers receive Connaught Global Challenge Award

lanthierj — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:35:38 +0000

Five U of T researchers receive Connaught Global Challenge Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 10/05/2020 - 14:35

Faculty

St. George

Connaught Global Challenge

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

OISE

landscape

Five University of Toronto researchers are receiving the Connaught Global Challenge Award, supporting projects that explore everything from sports analytics to precision medicine, Islamic texts, international partnerships in education and anti-corruption in the pharmaceutical sector.

“The Connaught Global Challenge Award recognizes researchers who are collaborating on projects that truly have the potential to make a global impact,” said Professor Alex Mihailidis, associate vice-president, international partnerships. “This year’s winners are working across disciplines with colleagues, students and innovators from a wide range of sectors, on solutions for some of the world’s most complex and challenging problems.

“The University of Toronto congratulates them on their creativity and innovation and is pleased to support their important work. “

This year’s winners and their projects are:

Timothy Chan, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, High-performance Analytics for High-performance Sports
Anver Emon, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Arts & Science, Reading Muslims: The Politics of Texts in Islamic Studies
Shana Kelley, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Global Perspectives to Advance Precision Medicine
Jillian Kohler, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Advancing Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms to Tackle Corruption in the Pharmaceutical System
James Slotta, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, International Partnerships in Education: Supporting 21st Century Competencies and Student Empowerment

UTC

Top Story (Hub page)

Off