Global water issues are becoming increasingly complex and often require a collaborative approach across a breadth of disciplines. To stimulate interdisciplinary water research, on Monday, May 9 the University of Waterloo’s Water Institute announced it had awarded six teams a combined total of $112,000 during its most recent winter Seed Grants Program application round.
The program awards a total of $150,000 annually, with competitions generally held during fall and winter terms. The goal is to catalyze interdisciplinary collaboration, facilitate interaction with national or international authorities, to encourage new areas of research and to encourage the development of research proposals.
“This program is an important instrument for the Water Institute to initiate novel inter- and trans-disciplinary collaboration between faculties, departments and research groups at Waterloo, and with potential end-users,” says Roy Brouwer, executive director of the Water Institute. “It also encourages creative and unconventional thought — something that distinguishes and brands the research carried out at the University of Waterloo and is in line with NSERC’s 2020 discovery research strategy.”
Project teams must be led by a Water Institute member and demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach, involving a minimum of three departments or two faculties per team.
2015/16 grant recipients for Winter 2016 include:
- Public perception and priorities for safe water in Accra, Ghana,featuring researchers from Geography and Environmental Management, the School of Public Health and Health Systems, and the United Nations University for Water, Environment and Health;
- Establishment of the first and most detailed account of lake-levels in the Peace-Athabasca Delta: a key hydrologic node of the Mackenzie River Basin, northwestern Canada, featuring researchers from Earth and Environmental Sciences, Biology, and Geography and Environmental Management;
- Implementing an open access GIS and satellite imaging system to inform health system spatial planning in Western District, Zambia, featuring researchers from the School of Public Health and Health Systems, Geography and Environmental Management, Aberystwyth University, and the United Nations University for Water, Environment and Health;
- Reactive interfaces in agroecosystems: meta-analysis and uncertainty analysis of biogeochemical functions in agricultural landscapes, featuring researchers from Earth and Environmental Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Economics Geography and Environmental Management, and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change;
- Improving weather forecasting models with satellite data assimilation: a new initiative at University of Waterloo, featuring Geography and Environmental Management, Systems Design Engineering, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Environment Canada;
- Catching ripples in the water: a social- ecological regime shifts approach to understand abrupt changes in coastal watersheds and crafting governance arrangements, featuring researchers from the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, Environment, Resources and Sustainability, Geography and Environmental Management, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Civil and Environmental Engineering.
2015/16 grant recipients for fall 2015 include:
- Boomerang effect: climate change adaptation, organized violence and regional (in)security, featuring researchers from the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, Economics, and Geography and Environmental Management; and
- Do watershed biogeochemical models really inform coastal ecology and environmental policy? Assessing knowledge gaps and charting the way forward in linking hydrology, biogeochemistry and land use to coastal ecosystem functions and environmental impacts, featuring researchers fromEarth and Environmental Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability.
See the full list of winter and fall seed grants recipients.
Originally published on Thursday, May 12 in the Daily Bulletin.