On April 25, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, announced more than $200 million in support for Canadian-led interdisciplinary, international, high-risk, and high-reward research through the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). Through three different NFRF competitions—Exploration, Transformation, and a Special Call for research supporting post-pandemic recovery—the government is supporting 195 projects that are bringing disciplines together in novel ways to form bold, innovative perspectives.
Through the Special Call on research for post-pandemic recovery and the NFRF 2022 Exploration competition fund, 12 ۲ݮƵ researchers received funding for their projects, for a total investment of $3.2 million. In the Special Call program for post-pandemic recovery, Professor Anne Cockcroft,clinician and global public health researcher at the Department of Family Medicine, was awarded $497,869 for the project, “Building on strength: using local knowledge to inform evidence-based community-led decision-making for COVID-19 recovery.” The project's Co-Principal Investigators are: Loubna Belaid, Sa'adatu Kirfi Bello, Yagana Gidado, Ivan Sarmiento and German Zuluaga. The Co-Applicants are: Víctor Alvarado-Castro, Hadiza Mudi and Natalia Reinoso-Chávez. The collaborators are: Neil Andersson and Claudia Mitchell.
The project addresses priority 5.1 of the UN Research Roadmap for COVID-19 recovery: How can communities be optimally engaged in decision-making during emergencies to strengthen social cohesion? What are the best strategies for leveraging existing local and traditional knowledge sources to inform decision-making?
The study objectives are to:
1. Understand the risk factors contributing to COVID-19 impact in Bauchi State, Nigeria
2. Co-design strategies for COVID-19 recovery that respond to the needs of all in the community and promote social cohesion and gender equality
3. Demonstrate increased community social cohesion after a dialogic intervention
4. Promote sustainability of the process for co-design of strategies and policies.
Congratulations Professor Cockcroft!