On April 25, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, announced more than $200 million in support for Canadian-led interdisciplinary, international, high-risk, and high-reward research through the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). Through three different NFRF competitions—Exploration, Transformation, and a Special Call for research supporting post-pandemic recovery—the government is supporting 195 projects that are bringing disciplines together in novel ways to form bold, innovative perspectives.
Through the Special Call on research for post-pandemic recovery and the NFRF 2022 Exploration competition fund, 12 McGill researchers received funding for their projects, for a total investment of $3.2 million. In the Special Call program for post-pandemic recovery, Professor Anne Cockcroft, clinician and global public health researcher at the Department of Family Medicine, was awarded $497,869 for the project, “Building on strength: using local knowledge to inform evidence-based community-led decision-making for COVID-19 recovery.” The project's Co-Principal Investigators are: Loubna Belaid, Sa'adatu Kirfi Bello, Yagana Gidado, Ivan Sarmiento and German Zuluaga. The Co-Applicants are: Víctor Alvarado-Castro, Hadiza Mudi and Natalia Reinoso-Chávez. The collaborators are: Neil Andersson and Claudia Mitchell.
The project addresses priority 5.1 of the UN Research Roadmap for COVID-19 recovery: How can communities be optimally engaged in decision-making during emergencies to strengthen social cohesion? What are the best strategies for leveraging existing local and traditional knowledge sources to inform decision-making?
The study objectives are to:
1. Understand the risk factors contributing to COVID-19 impact in Bauchi State, Nigeria
2. Co-design strategies for COVID-19 recovery that respond to the needs of all in the community and promote social cohesion and gender equality
3. Demonstrate increased community social cohesion after a dialogic intervention
4. Promote sustainability of the process for co-design of strategies and policies.
Congratulations Professor Cockcroft!
Click here to view the list of all 2022 Exploration Fund projects.
Click here to view the list of recipients from the 2022 Research for Postpandemic Recovery call.