The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has announced the recipients of its latest Partnership Development Grants competition, including $400,000 awarded to two McGill researchers.
Partnership Development Grants (PDG) support research teams for one to three years in developing research, knowledge mobilization and fostering partnerships with emerging scholars and other institutions and organizations in the social sciences and humanities. McGill’s Associate Professor Jason Harley, Department of Surgery and Professor Eric Latimer, Department of Psychiatry, each received PDGs totaling $200,000 for their projects.
Enhancing collaboration and efficiency in the workplace
As the 21st century workplace becomes more interconnected, collaborating effectively with others – often from different cultures and geographic backgrounds – has become an essential skill. However, studies show that there may be gaps between one’s ability to collaborate and their ability to regulate cognitive and emotional processes.
With the support of the PDG, Harley is partnering with academic institutions, national not-for-profit partners specialized in higher education and medical education and an international private partner, to better understand and improve cognitive and emotional regulation skills, which can enhance collaboration and efficiency in diverse workplace settings. Partners include McGill University, the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, University of Toronto’s Wilson Centre, the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and Adoc Talent Management.
Reducing homelessness
Latimer is studying how preventative measures can reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness, which has been rising in the past years largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects and increasing housing costs.
In 2021, with the support of the PDG, Latimer collaborated with Montreal’s Old Brewery Mission and academic experts at the Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy within McGill’s School of Population and Global Health to create the Québec Homelessness Prevention Policy Collaborative (Q-HPPC). The organization is the first of its kind in the province that brings together members from the academic, community and public service sectors with the aim of formulating and promoting policy recommendations and legal reforms to prevent homelessness in Quebec.
In the project’s second phase, in May 2023, the Q-HPPC hosted the “Preventing Homelessness: From Evidence to Policy” conference at McGill, which brought policymakers, community leaders, researchers and lived-experience advocates together to consider policy options aimed at preventing homelessness in Quebec and Canada.