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Health, education research draws $11 million in new SSHRC grants
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Contact: Marianne Meadahl/Julie Ovenell-Carter, Media & PR 604.291.4323
December 8, 2003
Simon Fraser University researchers will use $11 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to advance technology’s role in health care delivery and education.
SFU receives three of seven nationally awarded projects funded through SSHRC’s Initiative on the New Economy (INE), each valued at $3 million — the largest INE grant total secured by one university. "This is unique, a huge achievement for a single university," says SSHRC President Marc Renaud. Funding for two other $1 million projects involving SFU faculty will come from SSHRC’s Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) funding program.
"SFU ranks first among Canadian comprehensive universities in SSHRC and Canada Council grants," says SFU President Michael Stevenson. "With these exceptional new awards, developed in cooperation with many academic, institutional and community partners, SFU will nearly double the annual research grant funding the university has received from SSHRC in the past."
SFU faculty members from the school of communication, the faculty of education, and the department of political science and women’s studies lead five projects that will have broad, national impact. They will target improvements to the delivery of health information across the country, create new technological methods for training in the health sector, develop life-long learning tools and techniques for greater academic success, especially among First Nations children, and investigate the impact of government downsizing.
"The success of our researchers in the competition for these SSHRC awards is a spectacular achievement and speaks highly of the quality of their proposals and of their prior research accomplishments," says Bruce Clayman SFU vice-president, research. "It builds significantly on SFU's clear leadership among comprehensive research universities in research in the social sciences and humanities."
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Website: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council:
www.sshrc.ca
SFU receives three of seven nationally awarded projects funded through SSHRC’s Initiative on the New Economy (INE), each valued at $3 million — the largest INE grant total secured by one university. "This is unique, a huge achievement for a single university," says SSHRC President Marc Renaud. Funding for two other $1 million projects involving SFU faculty will come from SSHRC’s Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) funding program.
"SFU ranks first among Canadian comprehensive universities in SSHRC and Canada Council grants," says SFU President Michael Stevenson. "With these exceptional new awards, developed in cooperation with many academic, institutional and community partners, SFU will nearly double the annual research grant funding the university has received from SSHRC in the past."
SFU faculty members from the school of communication, the faculty of education, and the department of political science and women’s studies lead five projects that will have broad, national impact. They will target improvements to the delivery of health information across the country, create new technological methods for training in the health sector, develop life-long learning tools and techniques for greater academic success, especially among First Nations children, and investigate the impact of government downsizing.
- Communication professor Ellen Balka’s project will undertake a sweeping analysis of technology’s role in the health sector, from the impact of the computerization of jobs to the effectiveness of the Internet’s role in delivering health information.A team led by Phil Winne in the faculty of education will develop state-of-the-art software learning tools and research-backed "Learning Kits" for promoting life-long learning.Education professor David Kaufman’s assessment and development of new technological learning techniques involving games and simulations will be applied to educating the health sector. Assistant education professor Mark Fettes will work with BC school districts and First Nations communities on a $1 million study to investigate whether the concepts and methods of imaginative learning, pioneered at SFU, can help schools engage all children in effective learning.Marjorie Griffin Cohen of the departments of political science and women’s studies will direct a $1 million study, together with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and more than 40 academic and community partners, on the impact of the BC government’s public services restructuring program.
"The success of our researchers in the competition for these SSHRC awards is a spectacular achievement and speaks highly of the quality of their proposals and of their prior research accomplishments," says Bruce Clayman SFU vice-president, research. "It builds significantly on SFU's clear leadership among comprehensive research universities in research in the social sciences and humanities."
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Website: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council:
www.sshrc.ca