Media Releases

Munk School’s Innovation Policy Think Tank awarded major grant to establish digital research partnership

August 27, 2014

TORONTON , ON – The Munk School of Glob­al Affairs at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is proud to announce that David Wolfe, Co-Direc­tor of the Inno­va­tion Pol­i­cy Lab, and his team have been award­ed $2.9 mil­lion from SSHRC (the Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil) over six years for the Cre­at­ing dig­i­tal oppor­tu­ni­ty: Canada’s ICT indus­try in glob­al per­spec­tive project. With sup­port pro­vid­ed by SSHRC, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and oth­er part­ner uni­ver­si­ties, firms and orga­ni­za­tions, the project com­mit­ment totals $5.1 mil­lion.

Evolv­ing dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies are crit­i­cal to the glob­al econ­o­my and to Canada’s future eco­nom­ic growth and pros­per­i­ty. The rapid pace of inno­va­tion, along with shift­ing glob­al lead­er­ship in dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy, are cre­at­ing major chal­lenges for Canada’s dig­i­tal indus­tries, but also new oppor­tu­ni­ties. Canada’s future com­pet­i­tive­ness and prospects for eco­nom­ic growth are inex­tri­ca­bly linked to our abil­i­ty to seize the dig­i­tal oppor­tu­ni­ty being cre­at­ed.

Cre­at­ing Dig­i­tal Oppor­tu­ni­ty (CDO) is a research part­ner­ship designed to pro­duce the knowl­edge required to assist Cana­da in mov­ing toward glob­al com­pet­i­tive advan­tage by increas­ing the knowl­edge base need­ed to form effec­tive poli­cies. The part­ner­ship, includ­ing over 20 inves­ti­ga­tors at 16 uni­ver­si­ties across Cana­da and 13 com­mit­ted part­ner firms, cities and orga­ni­za­tions, pro­pos­es to answer the ques­tion: how can Cana­da best respond to the chal­lenges posed by a rapid­ly chang­ing dig­i­tal land­scape, while ben­e­fit­ing from emerg­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to pro­mote our eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty?

The Hon­ourable Ed Hold­er, Min­is­ter of State (Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy) made the announce­ment late this morn­ing. The SHRC Part­ner­ship Grant pro­gram sup­ports new research col­lab­o­ra­tion among pri­vate, pub­lic and not-for-prof­it sec­tors on issues that will advance our under­stand­ing of peo­ple and soci­ety.

More on CDO: http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/ipl/

Minister’s Announce­ment: http://goo.gl/HZcXom

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For gen­er­al press inquiries, please con­tact: Sean Wil­lett: sean.willett@utoronto.ca