Researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at York University have been awarded more than $11.9 million from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
The grants, part of $237 million in funding and awards recently announced, support research that improves the quality of life of Canadians, while advancing knowledge and building understanding of complex socio-cultural and economic issues.
“We are very pleased with SSHRC’s investment in humanities and social sciences research to support York’s researchers,” said Robert Haché, York’s vice-president research & innovation. “This funding will allow our researchers to make important contributions to our country’s knowledge base, while addressing key social issues facing Canadian society.”
 |
Above: International refugee law research is among the SSCHRC-funded topics for conferences and workshops at York
Forty-three faculty members received more than $2.9 million in standard research grants.
Researchers received more than $1.6 million in insight development grants, public outreach and dissemination grants, and research/creation grants in fine arts to support 15 projects.
York received more than $480,000 for research workshops and conferences. In the November competition in this category, SSHRC funded 100 per cent of 14 York projects, including:
- Modern Slavery, Human Rights and Human Development
- Museums, Film, Musealization in German culture
- Critical Issues in International Refugee Law Research
- Changing Frontiers of Ecological Knowledge: A Critical Dialogue of Asian Ecologies on the Edge
- 3-D Cinema
- The Politics of Labour in Canada
At York, 179 graduate students also received more than $5 million in scholarships and fellowships. Altogether 2,500 graduate and postdoctoral projects across Canada received funding.
Eight York researchers also received more than $1.5 million in partnership development grants, which encourage collaboration in social sciences and humanities research. This funding supports national and international partnerships between York and other universities, non-governmental organizations and governments. In this competition, York’s success rate was 17 per cent higher than the national success rate. Seven out of the eight awards were associated with York’s research centres.
“The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of investing in research in order to keep Canada at the forefront of the global economy,” said Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, in announcing the awards. “We are supporting research that will improve the quality of life of Canadians, while helping our universities develop, attract and retain the world’s best researchers.”
“Social sciences and humanities research is about people – who we are as human beings, what we do and why. By deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and by sharing that knowledge with government, businesses and communities across the country, our researchers continue to make significant contributions to Canada’s prosperity and our quality of life,” said SSHRC president Chad Gaffield. “Through these investments, we ensure that Canada’s best scholars receive the support they need for their research and that they share their knowledge with those who can put it to use across society.”
Visit the SSHRC website for a complete list of funded projects.