Award 25319-CA
Research Chairs in Environmental Studies
- COMPETITION OPENS February 2024
- Awards to be taken up in the 2025-2026 Academic Year
- Applications accepted until September 16, 2024
- The next competition, for awards to be taken up in the 2026-2027 Academic Year, will open in February 2025
- US$25,000 for 4 months
- Grants begin in either September 2025 or January 2026
- Fulbright Canada Program Officer, Recruitment
- Formal letters of invitation should not be sought; however, applicants are encouraged to contact the institution to discuss research interests.
Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Sustainability Solutions, Lakehead University
Faculty of Science and Environmental Studies
Solutions to sustainability issues are needed around the world and across many disciplines. This Chair illustrates Lakehead’s determination to more fully understand and respond to our world’s social and ecological challenges.
Lakehead University is a comprehensive university with a reputation for a multidisciplinary teaching approach that emphasizes collaborative learning and independent critical thinking. More than 8,700 students and 1,850 faculty and staff learn and work at campuses located in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario. The University is home to the west campus of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. Lakehead is the proud host to 18 Research Chairs, including 10 Canada Research Chairs, and revolutionary facilities such as our world-renowned Paleo-DNA Laboratory and our Biorefining Research Institute. Lakehead University promotes innovative research that supports local and regional socio-economic needs. In 2018, Lakehead University opened its newest research facility, CASES (Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering and Sciences). This center includes space for 80 graduate students, the centralized Instrumentation lab and Ingenuity, a co-working space for student business incubation, entrepreneurship, and mentoring.
Specializations: Sustainability sciences, biological sciences, environmental sciences, geography, sociology.
Fulbright Canada Research Chair on Advancing Transdisciplinary Research on the Changing North, Université Laval
Sentinel North
Institut Nordique du Québec
Addressing the complex issues brought on by accelerating climate change and socio-economic development in the North requires a research approach that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. Université Laval (ULaval) assumes internationally recognized leadership in northern and Arctic science and has a history of deploying ambitious research initiatives that encourage the convergence of research fields. Among these initiatives, Sentinel North and Institut Nordique du Québec (INQ) support the development of innovative research projects and the co-production of knowledge that cut across the engineering, natural, social and health sciences, with partners from northern organizations and the public and private sectors. The overarching goal of these initiatives is to improve our understanding of the northern environment and its impact on humans, their health and well-being and to advance strategies aimed at sustainable health and development in the North.
As part of an engaged, transdisciplinary research community at ULaval, with access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and research capacity, the Fulbright Canada Research chairholder will contribute expertise to areas of strategic importance to Sentinel North and INQ. Within a dynamic learning environment, which includes a variety of experiential training activities, the chairholder will also have the opportunity to contribute to the training of the next generation of transdisciplinary researchers.
Specializations: Areas of focus range from ecosystem functioning to key components of the coupled human-environment system (health), and from the development of innovative technologies to research into sustainable infrastructures.
Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta
Faculty of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences
The Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences (ALES) encompasses the physical, biological, and social sciences across four departments: Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology (REES), Agricultural, Food & Nutritional Science (AFNS), Renewable Resources (RENR), and Human Ecology (HECOL). Linkages between departments enable and stimulate interdisciplinary research.
The Department of REES research and teachings are related to the fields of Environmental and Resource Economics, Economics of Agriculture Food & Agribusiness, Environmental and Resource Sociology, and International Development. The Department of AFNS research and teachings are related to the fields of Animal Science, Food Science and Bioresources, Human Nutrition and Plant Biosystems.
The Department of RENR research and teachings are related to the fields of Environmental and Conservation Biology, Environmental Soil Science, Forest Ecology and Management, and Reclamation and Restoration of Land and Water. The Department of HECOL supports rigorous multidisciplinary research work related to the fields of Aging; Children, Youth & Families; Material Culture, and Textile & Apparel Science.
Specializations: Natural and/or social science dimensions of global food systems, healthy human environments, growing the bio-products industry, and sustainable land, forest and water management.
Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Transitions, University of Toronto Scarborough
Institute for Resilient and Inclusive Societies and Ecosystems (iRISE)
The challenges of the current climate crisis, the health of our planet, the well-being of individuals and societies, and the inclusiveness and sustainability of local and global economies are deeply intertwined. The solution to these challenges is rarely linear and requires us to bring different kinds of knowledges and communities into dialogue. The Fulbright Canada Research Chairholder will be engaged in research that seeks to address these challenges by synthesizing scholarly thought from different disciplines to create collaborative solutions to the vexing problems of our time, in Canada and around the world.
iRISE is a network of research institutes at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) comprised of three founding institutes: the Institute for Environment, Conservation and Sustainability; the Institute for Inclusive Health and Well-Being; and the Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods. It also includes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Institutional Strategic Initiative, which supports transdisciplinary research engaged in understanding and implementing the SDGs established by the UN in 2015. Through its establishment of iRISE, UTSC affirms its commitment to convergence research that empowers communities and individuals, and informs future global goals for a just, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable future.
Specializations: Research should relate to sustainability, broadly understood, and match research priorities of the institutes and Initiatives within iRISE, including environment and climate change, poverty reduction, health inequities, and sustainable development.
Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Healthy People and Planet, University of Victoria
The broad theme, “Healthy People and Planet,” reflects the University of Victoria’s commitment to addressing the urgent challenges facing human wellbeing, oceans, lands, and the economy. Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, temperate coastal rainforests and a vibrant and progressive community, the UVic campus is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in the capital city of British Columbia on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ Nations. UVic is ranked #12 in the world by the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking for its deep and ongoing research, education, creative and operational contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. UVic is also internationally known and ranked #1 in North America by the Leiden rankings for a strong culture of interdisciplinary, international and community-based collaboration.
The proposed research of the UVic Fulbright Chair holder can encompass any area of study and practice contributing to health and wellness, ocean and climate science, poverty reduction, smart sustainable cities, water security, ecosystem conservation, climate policy, and so on. Scholars must describe to the adjudicators how their work contributes to this theme and will augment existing or emerging research strengths. The Chair holder will benefit from and contribute to research collaborations with individual scholars and interdisciplinary teams and contribute to supporting the mandates of key research centres or institutes in their area of study and expertise. The expectation is that the Chair will share their expertise and influence leading edge practice within the UVic research enterprise and exploring opportunities for knowledge translation and dissemination within the broader community.
Specialization: Climate; environment; clean tech; energy; sustainability; security; social justice; equity; Indigenous-led scholarship; technology; health; wellbeing; aging; innovation; applied science; impact; public policy; knowledge mobilization; UN Sustainable Development Goals.