GIER’s Small Grants Program (SGP) seeks to promote interdisciplinary research and scholarship relating to any aspect of the environment among investigators from all seven Colleges at the University of Guelph.
While all areas of research are eligible for this program, for 2020-21, GIER is particularly interested in proposals that address one or more the following strategic areas:
- COVID-19 and the Environment: The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically forced us all to modify our behaviour. These changes in human behaviour have had important ripple effects on the environment. Because these are major changes that are interdisciplinary in their nature, GIER is committed to better understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment, including social and economic inequities.
- Indigenous Environmental Research and Engagement: GIER acknowledges the importance of Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, and values on environmental stewardship and hence looks forward to cultivating stronger relationships with Indigenous scholars and communities to advance reconciliation and decolonization initiatives at the University of Guelph.
- Environmental Arts meets Environmental Sciences: Society is confronting unprecedented environmental challenges, but practitioners have come to an agreement that most environmental challenges are at their core human issues. Artistic invention can empower individuals and societies to understand the past and to imagine futures. It can also create empathy and resilience to future crises.
- Environmental Communication & Knowledge Translation: We are faced with many ‘wicked’ environmental problems which are interrelated and go beyond traditional scientific fields. To tackle these challenges, scientists need to engage with those outside their field or profession. However, scientists are generally poorly-equipped to do this and a lack of interdisciplinary context often compounds the difficulty to engage with the public or policy-makers.
For more information, please refer to UofG’s Research Alert.
