University of Waterloo researchers have been awarded more than $3.3 million to support research infrastructure and solutions to societal challenges through Canada Foundation for Innovation and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The announcement was shared by the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of National Revenue at the Université de Sherbrooke, on behalf of the Honourable François Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health.

“I would like to congratulate the more than 35 University of Waterloo researchers who are receiving funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Canada Foundation for Innovation,” says Charmaine Dean, vice-president, Research and International at the University of Waterloo. “This funding is a significant element of driving university research by supporting infrastructure along with the development of new knowledge in significant areas, including developing a personalizable robotic system for enhancing children’s emotion knowledge, the political power of public sector votes, and scalable biomanufacturing for a net-zero economy.”

The funding will support Waterloo researchers in transforming societies, economies, technologies, sustainability and health for humanity to thrive in our complex future.

Numerous Waterloo researchers received funding under the following grants and programs:

  • Insight Grant
  • Insight Development Grant
  • John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF)

Learn more about the recipients and their projects below.

Insight grant

Dr. Janet Boekhorst | Faculty of Engineering
$162,628

The inclusion warriors: An event system perspective of high performers in fostering workgroup inclusion

Dr. Philip Boyle | Faculty of Arts
$135,429

Infrastructures of vulnerability: Governing critical systems

Dr. Dillion Browne | Faculty of Arts
$92,323

"We Belong": Exploring patterns and predictors of belonging and well-being with the Youth Impact Survey

Dr. Stephanie Denison | Faculty of Arts
$272,393

Children's reasoning about variable social and physical causes

Dr. Fraser Easton | Faculty of Arts
$187,417

Cross-dressing in the news: Social practice and generic constraint in the Times, 1785-1884

Dr. Dan Gorman | Faculty of Arts
$60,466

Freedom of Expression and PEN International, 1921-1970

Dr. Jean Guillaume Forand | Faculty of Arts<
$47,203

The political power of public sector voters

Dr. Shavin Malhotra | Faculty of Engineering<
$173,831

CEO dyads: Unveiling personality dynamics in joint corporate strategies

Dr. Derek Stacey | Faculty of Arts
$64,958

Frictional and speculative vacancies: The effects of an empty homes tax


Insight development grant

Dr. Laura Jane Brubacher | Faculty of Health
$73,895

Identifying entry points for social prescribing to support temporary and/or precarious-status (TAPS) migrants

Dr. Victor Cui | Faculty of Engineering
$64,113

Geopolitical tension and inventor mobility

Dr. Kim de Laat | Faculty of Arts
$66,190

Hybrid work arrangements and cognitive labour: Implications for gender inequality at work and home

Dr. Felicitas Egunyu | Faculty of Environment
$52,561

Can non-government organizations mitigate the social impacts of mining in Uganda?

Learn more on the Faculty of Environment website.

Dr. Amr ElAlfy | Faculty of Environment
$62,347

Sustainability disclosure and net zero targets: Investigating the readiness of Canadian firms and implications for financial stability

Learn more on the Faculty of Environment website.

Dr. Adam Ellis | Faculty of Arts
$70,500

Challenging mainstream narratives about the Canadian war on drugs through the urban arts: Stories of survivors

Dr. Moojan Ghafurian | Faculty of Engineering
$75,000

Developing a personalizable robotic system for enhancing children's emotion knowledge

Dr. Nicolas Hebbinckuys | Faculty of Arts
$47,079

Examiner la fabrique "d'une" Histoire de la Nouvelle-France: Le cas Marc Lescarbot

Dr. Daniel Kim | Faculty of Arts
$69,477

Carbon emission and firms: estimates from a dynamic model

Dr. James Kim | St. Jerome’s University/Faculty of Arts
$54,926

Modern man-ifestations: An interdisciplinary mixed-methods investigation of misogyny and gender-based violence

Dr. Juyeon Lee | Faculty of Health
$74,444

Working behind the closed doors: Examining policy and research needs for digital platform workers in the private households sector

Dr. Laura Mae Lindo | Faculty of Arts
$53,740

Philosophy as resistance: Imagining black youth engagement in philosophy

Dr. Shana MacDonald | Faculty of Arts
$74,232

Exploring the visual culture of misogyny across material and digital archives

Dr. Kaleigh Pennock | Faculty of Health
$69,122

A community-based approach to concussion reporting in youth girls' sport

Dr. Helena Shilomboleni | Faculty of Environment
$72,600

Assessing the impact of the stress tolerant rice for Africa and South Asia (Strasa) project in Kenya.

Learn more on the Faculty of Environment website.

Dr. Galen Watts | Faculty of Arts
$73,239

Scripts, boundaries, and repertoires across Canada's diploma divide: A cultural-sociological study of rural working-class Canadians

Dr. Heather Whiteside | Faculty of Arts
$30,413

Canada Lands Company

Dr. Kaishu Wu | Faculty of Arts
$47,796

Cryptocurrency and tax avoidance


John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF)

Dr. Annemarie Dedek | Faculty of Science
$100,000

Translational approaches to studying chronic pain

Learn more on the Faculty of Science website.

Dr. Christian Euler | Faculty of Engineering
$84,721

Scalable biomanufacturing for a net-zero economy

Dr. Moojan Ghafurian | Faculty of Engineering
$95,000

Social robots for supporting older adults and children

Dr. Sheereen Harris | Faculty of Health
$100,000

Integrating behavioural science and digital health approaches to predict and promote physical activity

Dr. Neil Hester | Faculty of Arts
$22,000

Creation and validation of the Waterloo dress database to support impression formation research

Dr. Yilan Liu | Faculty of Engineering
$80,000

Developing synthetic symbiotic bacterial consortia for mixed plastic upcycling

Dr. Alana Lund | Faculty of Engineering
$110,000

Uncertainty-aware structural identification testbed for bridge infrastructure

Dr. Abiola Olaitan | Faculty of Science
$150,000

Developing a high-throughput genome-wide screening system to study stress defense mechanisms in clostridioides difficile

Learn more on the Faculty of Science website.

Dr. Elisabeth Prince | Faculty of Engineering
$92,689

Injectable filamentous hydrogels for regenerative medicine

Dr. Joshua Pulsipher | Faculty of Engineering
$80,000

CPU-GPU accelerated optimal process design and control to rigorously model space-time

Dr. Pezhouhan Tavassoti-Kheiry | Faculty of Engineering
$105,000

Developing next generation of green pavement technologies


The Insight Grant and Insight Development Grant projects are supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) projects are supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.