Research Without Borders

OTTAWA, Feb. 25 - The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canada Research Chairs Program are pleased to announce eight research partnerships between outstanding university scholars in Canada and their peers in the developing world.

The teams will undertake research projects that address important
topics including health, environmental sustainability, resource
management and information communications technology.

'Our government understands that investing in science and
technology is critical for succeeding in today's global economy', said
the Honourable Gary Goodyear, minister of State (Science and
Technology). 'This is why we announced a $5.1 billion dollar
investment in S&T in Budget 2009, Canada's Economic Action Plan.

Investments in such international partnerships are helping enhance
our universities' research capacity and fostering world-class
discoveries that will help position Canada as a leader in addressing
issues of global concern. They are also contributing to training and
mentoring the next generation of researchers and highly skilled
workers around the world.

The International Research Chairs Initiative (IRCI) was launched by
IDRC, in collaboration with the Chairs Program in December 2007. It
solicited applications for joint research between Canada Research
Chairs and their counterparts at universities in the developing
world. Eight teams were selected to receive up to $1 million over
five years, each to address a key development challenge.

'The partnership between IDRC and the Canada Research Chairs
Program is a distinctly Canadian international initiative that brings
the power of science and technology to bear on problems in the
developing world, while creating unique research opportunities for
Canadians,' said IDRC president David Malone.

The research collaborations supported through the IRCI will help
Canada and developing countries connect and contribute to the
global supply of talent and ideas', said Chad Gaffield, president of
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and head of
the Canada Research Chairs Program's steering committee.

Funding for this initiative is provided by IDRC while the
administration of the peer-review process is being overseen by the
Chairs Program. In addition to identifying new avenues for
knowledge, policy, and technology transfer, these partnerships will
provide university students with unique training and fieldwork
opportunities under the mentorship of the chairholders.

The eight successful teams, which were selected among 104
applications through a rigorous peer-review process, are as follows:

BATTLING POLLUTION IN COASTAL AREAS

Adalto Bianchini
IDRC Research Chair in Environmental Health and Management
Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil

Christopher Wood
Canada Research Chair in Environment and Health
McMaster University, Hamilton

HELPING FISHING COMMUNITIES MANAGE THEIR RESOURCES

Alpina Begossi
IDRC Research Chair in Community-Based Resource Management
State University of Campinas, Brazil

Fikret Berkes
Canada Research Chair in Community-Based Resource Management
Natural Resources Institute
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg

TACKLING MINE WASTE FOR BETTER HEALTH

Rachid Hakkou
Chaire de recherche du CRDI en gestion et stabilisation des dchets
industriels et miniers
Universit Cadi Ayyad, Morocco

Mostafa Benzaazoua
Chaire de recherche du Canada sur la gestion intgre des rejets miniers
sulfureux par remblayage
Universit du Qubec en Abitibi-Tmiscamingue (UQAT)

GETTING AHEAD OF THE CURVE IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

Ranjan K. Mallik
IDRC Research Chair in Wireless Communications
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India

Robert Schober
Canada Research Chair in Wireless Communications
University of British Columbia, Vancouver

BREAKING THE BARRIERS TO INTERNET ACCESS

Xiaoyan Zhu
IDRC Research Chair in Information Technology
Tsinghua University, China

Ming Li
Canada Research Chair in Bioinformatics
University of Waterloo, Waterloo

CONTROLLING INFECTIOUS DISEASES WITH MODELS AND MATH

Yiming Shao
IDRC Research Chair in Modeling and Management of Communicable Diseases
National Centre for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, China

Jianhong Wu
Canada Research Chair in Industrial and Applied Mathematics
York University, Toronto

TURNING HEALTH RESEARCH INTO POLICY

Nelson Sewankambo
IDRC Research Chair in Evidence-Informed Health Policies and Systems
Makerere University, Uganda

John Lavis
Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Exchange
McMaster University, Hamilton

IMPROVING CHILD NUTRITION

Anna Lartey
IDRC Research Chair in Nutrition for Health and Socio-economic
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
University of Ghana, Ghana

Grace Suzanne Marquis
Canada Research Chair in Social and Environmental Aspects of Nutrition
McGill University, Montral

For researcher biographies and project descriptions, please consult
www.idrc.ca/irci

About IDRC

Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is one of the world's leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges of international development. For more than 40 years, IDRC has worked in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies.

About the Canada Research Chairs Program

The Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program is designed to attract the best talent from Canada and around the world, helping Canadian universities achieve research excellence in health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and social sciences and humanities. Since its launch in 2000, chairholders have improved Canadians' depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthened the
country's international competitiveness, and helped train the next generation of highly skilled people. There are currently 1,831 research professorships at 70 universities across Canada. Of these positions, 574 researchers were recruited from abroad, including 265 Canadian expatriates.