間眅埶AV

間眅埶AV Climate Innovation operationalizes 間眅埶AV���s critical research priority to deliver community-centred climate innovation. We leverage 間眅埶AV���s capacities and reputation as a leading research university to accelerate climate action and innovation research with and for communities across Canada and beyond.

Our mandate is to co-create research-for-impact with and for community partners, mobilizing knowledges and scaling innovations that accelerate low carbon, resilient and sustainable solutions in communities across Canada and beyond. Learn more about the ways 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation is enabling climate research-for-impact.

The 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation Advisory Group will adjudicate and is comprised of:

Steeve Mongrain Associate Dean, Research and International, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor, Department of Economics

Dr. Mongrain (he/him/his) specializes in Public Economics, Law & Economics and Urban Economics,with a focus on topics like taxation, redistribution, tax evasion, victimization and law enforcement. Dr. Mongrain has published consistently in reputable peer-reviewed venues including the International Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Urban Economics, and the Journal of International Economics, among others. Dr. Mongrain was the Principal Investigator (PI) on two major Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grants, another as a co-applicant, and several smaller ones. Dr. Mongrain served on the Canadian Journal of Economics editorial board from 2010 to 2014 and is currently an Associate Editor of Economica Politica.

Joanne de Vries Founder and CEO of both Alliance Communications and .

Through Alliance, she worked for almost 35 years as a public outreach and engagement specialist to all levels of government in BC, supporting community sustainability planning processes and capital projects. In 2006, she established the Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF), a registered charity passionate about inspiring community conversations for sustainable change. Since 2022, FOF���s focus has been Climate Action Ripple Effect (CARE), a student and community learning and engagement program that helps school districts and municipalities meet their climate education goals, while supporting other local climate action plan objectives. Community mentors from all walks of life work with student teams to inform and inspire quality learning and project outcomes. The resulting multi-sector, intergenerational, and cross-culture communication and collaboration advances local climate action, while kick-starting a proven model for addressing other community challenges.

Sean Markey Professor, Director of School of Resource & Environmental Management

Vance Williams Professor, Department of Chemistry, Joint Affiliations with 4D Labs

Yaheli Klein Senior Policy Analyst (on behalf of Kenneth Porter, Manager of Communities) Climate Action Secretariat (CAS), Government of British Columbia

Driven by a passion for climate justice, Yaheli fuses her social work roots with urban planning expertise to champion equity in climate adaptation. Partnering with 間眅埶AV���s ACT - Action on Climate Team, she advanced community resilience initiatives, and as a Provincial policy leader since 2014, she���s shaped real estate strategies and safeguarded communities from the socio-economic impacts of industrial development. Now, as a key architect of BC���s , Yaheli is committed to empowering local governments and accelerating bold, inclusive climate solutions across the province.

間眅埶AV's Institutional Strategic Awards representative

A successful 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation Catalyst Grant could, for example, lead to a SSHRC Partnership Development project ($100k), or a CIHR Catalyst Grant ($100k).

An Amplification Grant may take a project further to a SSHRC Partnership Grant ($2.5M) or a CIHR Team Grant ($1M+).

The three streams of 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation Seed Funding are intended to model this ���ratcheting-up��� effect; i.e., the Pollinator Award working at the ideation stage, the Catalyst Grant working at the co-design stage, and the Amplification Grant working at the co-creation, implementation, and/or evaluation stages.

This funding is new starting early 2025. We will post all details of successful applicants on the 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation webpage.

間眅埶AV Climate Innovation is looking for high-impact projects, that are transdisciplinary in nature, and that have the potential to advance transformative climate actions and innovation for communities, locally and globally. The following criteria will be used to assess those projects that are likely to have the highest impact:

1. Inter & transdisciplinary ��� the project includes faculty from across disciplines aligned with community-centred partners to generate new insights and solutions that transcend traditional disciplinary and sectoral boundaries
2. Appropriate partners to meet objectives ��� the project has been co-designed with relevant partners (except for Pollinator where this is not a requirement)
3. Community-centred ��� the project scope and objectives have community engagement and co-creation research approaches at its core
4. Goals for impact ��� the project integrates knowledge mobilization strategies and anticipated benefits for reducing risk, emissions and advancing sustainability outcomes
   
5. Higher-order funding plan ��� the project identifies and seeks to pursue higher-order funding (e.g. Tri-Council, philanthropy)
6. 間眅埶AV-aligned research principles and values ��� the project elevates Indigenous Knowledges and Rights, and weaves Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion into research design and practice wherever possible
7. Scholarly excellence ��� the project identifies the scholarly strengths of individual team members and demonstrates how these strengths are essential to tackling the research question
8. Knowledge Mobilization outputs and strategy - the project has a plan for accessibility and elevated visibility ensuring research outcomes are shared across diverse channels with relevant audiences (e.g. academic publications, plus external facing artifacts such as policy briefs, op-eds, social media, podcasts)

Note these are the highest aspirations of 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation; not all research projects will be able to meet all criteria.

Note regarding unsuccessful projects: The 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation team will keep an updated database of relevant projects we have received applications for and will look for appropriate partners and funding to support the development of these projects wherever possible.

Community is defined as a collectivity in a local geography, and/or with shared place-based identities, that has the capacity to express itself as a collective. Community-centred partners work in a place-based way and may include local governments, First Nations, non-profit organizations, intermediary organizations (e.g. community-oriented associations and networks), health authorities, corporate sector and/or small business partners, etc.

間眅埶AV Climate Innovation is offering this seed funding to address both the sources (emissions) and impacts (hazards and vulnerabilities) of climate change, and to advance the social, economic, environmental and cultural responses needed to support communities as they climate-proof for the future.

Priority will be given to projects that have the potential to move to implementation and co-create impact that can be transferred to other communities across Canada and beyond. This involves including community-centred co-creation partners in research inquiry and design, and advancing potential solutions that minimize community risk, reduce emissions, and/or advance sustainability transitions (e.g. streamlining policies, technologies, planning, and/or limited resources, addressing multiple challenges, and testing and de-risking innovative ideas, technologies, policies, communications and engagements).

Funders ��� from government (e.g. Tri-Council) to philanthropy - are increasingly demanding that research is interdisciplinary ��� addressing problems in a more systemic manner; is co-created ��� including relevant community-based partners to effectively address problems and move toward implementation; and is mobilized and scaled ��� solutions are communicated across relevant networks and channels to help to advance and accelerate climate action and innovation in other communities and organizations.

Community-centred research-for-impact requires shifting toward co-creation research methodologies ��� inviting us to expand ideas of power and knowledge and to include implementation partners and impacted and interested groups into research design and delivery. The assumption is that community-centred research is strengthened by upholding Indigenous Knowledges and rights, and embedding JEDI principles. Communities ��� defined by 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation as a collectivity residing in a local geography, sharing place-based and/or other identities capable of expressing as a collective ��� need to be engaged in relevant, evidence-based research accelerates climate action and innovation and policy and impact.

• Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grants:   provide support for new and existing formal partnerships over four to seven years to advance research, research training and/or knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities. Explicitly they call for ���Disciplinary and interdisciplinary research partnerships��� and ���Cross-sector co-creation of knowledge and understanding���. Stage 1 grants are for up to $20,000, Stage 2 grants go up to $2.5 million.
• New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF): supports world-leading interdisciplinary, international, high-risk / high-reward, transformative and rapid-response Canadian-led research. One stream offers grants up to $100,000 per year for direct costs, plus an additional 25% for indirect costs, for up to two years. Another stream offers grants between $2 million and $4 million per year, including indirect costs, for up to six years.
  
• Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Horizons - Pilot Program: NSERC support investigator-initiated individual and team projects that broadly integrate or transcend disciplines to advance knowledge in the natural sciences and engineering (NSE). Discovery Horizons grants ranged from $50,000 to $100,000 per year depending on the size of the research team, with 10 to 20 grants awarded in the pilot year.
  
• Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Team Grant: CIHR are designed to support larger research teams conducting health-related research across CIHR's mandate. Teams are required to be interdisciplinary. Funding typically ranges from $500k to $2 million per project, with a duration up to five years.
  

Incase you missed it, watch the hosted on April 7, 2025.

Tips and resources to help get you started:

• Factors to consider when developing your research proposal
• Developing a research budget
• Find an 間眅埶AV research expert to collaborate with
• Looking for a community partner? Join the 間眅埶AV Climate Innovation community for access to networking events and connections