Imagining Canada’s Future Ideas Lab: Global Health and Wellness for the 21st Century

The Imagining Canada’s Future (ICF) Ideas Lab is an exciting, two-year pilot funding opportunity designed to encourage innovative research partnerships and projects. By breaking down methodological barriers and empowering participants to explore novel approaches to research, the ICF Ideas Lab will promote knowledge sharing and provide foundations for future interdisciplinary projects.

If you enjoy collaborating with other researchers and are seeking new challenges, this funding opportunity may be for you.

What is the ICF Ideas Lab?

Ideas Labs are interactive workshops developed by research agencies to stimulate new research on pressing societal challenges.

Participants in the ICF Ideas Lab will join a diverse group of researchers representing different disciplines and institutions in a facilitated, virtual workshop. Workshop participants will form small teams to develop and pitch innovative research proposals to a jury of merit reviewers.

Teams will be invited to apply for funding to further develop their project idea. SSHRC will award up to five grants of up to $250,000 per grant.

What is the theme?

Global Health and Wellness for the 21st Century is one of 16 global challenges identified through SSHRC’s ICF initiative. It is also a priority for the Public Health Agency of Canada and Genome Canada, which seek to gain social sciences and humanities insights in this priority thematic area.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was experiencing rapid changes in the health and wellness sector. Growing demands from an aging population, important technological drivers and climate change are among key forces that were, and still are, requiring transformation. The advent of COVID-19 highlighted the pressures on the global health and wellness environments. Across national, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous jurisdictions, citizens have felt the impacts of a health system in crisis. Further, the impacts of colonialism, racism and other forms of structural discrimination continue to shape our perspectives on health and wellness. Simultaneously, climate change and other environmental factors will continue to influence our health system in complex and nuanced ways throughout the 21st century. Several factors will need to be considered when exploring health and wellness systems.

How to apply

SSHRC is looking for innovative scholars from all social sciences and humanities disciplines to be part of this pilot funding opportunity. Up to 35 researchers will be selected to participate in a multiple-day workshop to form research teams and develop proposals.

We will offer information webinars in April to provide interested scholars with more information on how this Ideas Lab opportunity will unfold.

Register for information webinars

Apply to the Ideas Lab funding opportunity

Key activity dates

For more information, contact: ksg-ssc@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca

Date modified:

2023-06-23