Carleton receives $2.1 M to create a Canada-Europe knowledge network

(Ottawa) – Today, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) announced it is giving $2.1 million to set up a strategic knowledge network at Carleton University that will promote a dialogue between Canada and Europe to solve similar challenges.

“This new cluster will seek solutions to key problems facing Canada and Europe such as finding strategies to address environmental and climate change issues, countering declines in citizen participation in politics, balancing new security concerns with human rights, integrating widely diverse immigrant populations, and managing economic competition,” says Joan DeBardeleben, Director of the project and Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University. “Sharing European and Canadian experiences, based on a solid base of Canadian scientific research, will ensure that we do not unknowingly replicate unsuccessful approaches or miss promising ones.”

The cluster will be housed at Carleton University’s Centre for European Studies and includes 60 Canadian researchers from l8 universities, with partners in government and the NGO sector. Five other Canadian universities are partnering on the project: McGill and the universities of British Columbia, Montreal, Toronto, and Victoria. In addition, there are collaborators and partners from across the United States and Europe.

“This unique network will not only strengthen Canada’s research capacity about Europe, but also will disseminate this knowledge in new ways to policy-makers and the public,” says Dr. DeBardeleben. “The seven-year funding announced today by SSHRC, along with on-going support provided by the European Commission, will assure that Canadian interests play a more central role in defining research agendas in this area.”

Each year, the cluster will support a major transatlantic event that will bring together European and Canadian experts. It will also support student internships abroad, mentoring of young researchers, the development of briefing papers, policy working groups, and media outreach.