THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay is among two cities that will benefit from a $1 million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) meant to promote campus-community collaboration on health.
The City of Thunder Bay will partner with NOSM University and Lakehead University on the CIHR-funded study, alongside a similar partnership between the University of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa.
Thunder Bay will receive $370,000 from the federal agency over four years to implement the project, including the hiring of a research coordinator.
Using the CityStudio framework, the project will measure how collaboration between university researchers and the community can address local public health challenges.
Under the CityStudio model, municipalities identify priorities that are matched with courses at a local university, and students and faculty then co-create projects intended to achieve those goals.
It’s a model endorsed by Erin Cameron, director of the Centre for Social Accountability at NOSM University and a principal investigator on the CIHR grant.
“CityStudio is internationally recognized for helping municipalities and academic institutions collaborate to create bridges across municipal government, academic institutions and the community in a concerted effort to address the unique challenges they face,” she said.
Other local academics involved with the project include Helle Moeller and Rebecca Schiff from Lakehead University.
They will work in collaboration with a team at the University of Ottawa led by Dr. Claire Kendall, associate dean of social accountability in the faculty of medicine.
Local projects will align with goals in the city’s Community Safety & Well-Being Plan, project leaders said in a statement issued Tuesday by Lakehead.
Lee-Ann Chevrette, the city’s community safety and well-being specialist, said the collaboration will move forward work on the plan, which is not provincially funded.
“Throughout the development of the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan for Thunder Bay, we engaged with community partners and citizens to identify local priorities that, if addressed, would have the greatest impacts on improving safety and well-being for those living in Thunder Bay,” she said. “This grant will help determine how to most effectively engage our community and implement our plan.”
