University of Toronto Mississauga
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

UTM Undergraduate Research Grants are intended to assist eligible undergraduate students to develop and improve research skills. All UTM undergraduates in good academic standing are eligible to apply for these grants. Students may apply either as individuals or as groups, limited to three members. In the case of group applications, one of the students should be designated as the contact applicant.

Two award pools have also been established. The first is the Amrita Daniere Sustainability pool focusing on topics related to sustainability, and the second special pool focuses on topics related to Social Justice, Anti-Racism, and/or Decolonization. The UTM Dean’s Office provides up to $500 per student to support undergraduate research initiatives.

1. Centre for Urban Environments Research Awards:
To help facilitate high-level research at the University of Toronto, the Centre for Urban Environments (CUE) is pleased to provide funding on a competitive basis to graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty affiliated with CUE.

Applications can be submitted by any CUE member based at the University of Toronto Mississauga, regardless of discipline, so long as the proposed research advances CUE’s mission of being a leader in urban environmental research and sustainability. Research that bridges across traditional disciplines is particularly encouraged, with the awarding of proposals spread equally across the social and natural sciences. The maximum amount of funding available per project is $2,000.

CUE also offers support for post-doctoral fellows, undergraduates, and graduate students:

• The total value of the post-doctoral fellowship is $55,000 CDN, plus any additional research funds provided by supervisors.

• The total value of each undergraduate research award is $8,000.

• CUE also offers a workshop/symposium grant with a maximum award of $6,000.

• Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) students can apply for funding up to $3,000 per project.


2. Institutional Strategy Initiatives (ISI):

The mission of the ISI’s portfolio is to launch, grow, and sustain large-scale interdisciplinary strategic research in three key areas: 1) Significant challenge that requires an interdisciplinary approach, 2) Cross-divisional and tri-campus support, and 3) sustainability. For example, one of the current initiatives is Climate Positive Energy, where UTM’s MScSM Director, Shashi Kant received a $100,000 group grant to determine a methodology to account for scope 3 GHG emissions at U of T.


3. CECCS Research Sub-Committee

The President’s Committee on Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (CECCS) has four sub-committees to support the mission of the CECCS. The Research Subcommittee aims to support and bring together sustainability researchers into a community of practice and enhance relevant research initiatives. The Research Subcommittee incorporates aspects of Campus as Living Lab (CLL) which is one of the four cross-cutting themes under CECCS.


4. Novo Nordisk Network for Healthy Populations

The Novo Nordisk Network for Health Populations is housed under U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine where their mission is to unite world-leading researchers and students at U of T with patients, clinicians, community members, policymakers, and city planners in Peel Region to co-create solutions that will make populations healthier in an effective, feasible, sustainable, and equitable way. The Network for Healthy Populations Graduate Award supports graduate students pursuing thesis-based projects (Research Stream) and currently registered at the University of Toronto at DLSPH or any department at the U of T Mississauga. Award value per recipient is $20,000.

The most recent Institutional Strategic Research Plan 2018-2023 highlights the environment and approach that allows UTM's researchers to continue to do their outstanding work by providing a climate that will enable them to thrive.

U of T's Academic Administrative Procedures Manual which outlines how promotions are administered can be found here: https://www.aapm.utoronto.ca/academic-administrative-procedures-manual/promotions/

All departments have a liaison librarian assigned to them; therefore, work being done in sustainability in areas such as geography and environmental studies, and other areas of studies at UTM is supported by the Library. There is a liaison librarian that works with the Master of Science in Sustainability Management program and with the faculty and students in the program to support research, teaching and learning, to build library collections, both print and digital, to develop and provide information literacy instruction in sustainability and many other library services. This is the case for all departments at UTM.

Liaison librarians also develop library guides to support students within programs/courses and there is one for sustainability management.
The guide can be viewed at: https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/utm_mscsm.

Centre for Urban Environments research fund: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/cue/cue-initiatives/research-fund

https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/cdrs/ -Collaborative Digital Research Space

CECCS Research: https://sustainability.utoronto.ca/ceccs-subcommittees/research/

The Novo Nordisk Network for Health Populations: https://healthypopulationsnetwork.utoronto.ca/current-funding-opportunities

Institutional Strategy Initiatives (ISI):
https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/vp-research/about/departments-units/institutional-strategic-initiatives#:~:text=The%20University%20of%20Toronto%20Mississauga,and%20impactful%20large%2Dscale%20research.