Grant: Collaborative Research and Training Experience

Canada is challenged with pressing issues of water security; many of its river basins are experiencing periodic water shortages, expensive floods and droughts, a rapidly changing climate, and increasing impacts to water quality and quantity associated with urban population growth and natural resources development. To ensure continued aquatic ecosystem health, sustained economic growth, and responsible resource development in Canada's river basins, required are integrative research agendas and collaborative approaches focused on both the science and governance of water security. For this, a new model for training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows is needed - one that is comprehensive and career-oriented and with a research focus that embraces collaboration and integration across the many disciplines that support water security. Our NSERC CREATE for Water Security program partners 18 accomplished researchers from the disciplines of geography, civil engineering, geoscience, biology, atmospheric science and public policy from the Universities of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Calgary, McMaster and Waterloo with eight private sector companies and four governments. The program is based on a science-practitioner model to stimulate graduate students to learn and understand the integration of science, engineering and policy analysis to address current and future challenges in managing complex and uncertain water systems. Our research and training model expands interactions across disciplines without diluting disciplinary credentials, blurs the line between research and practice, and builds necessary personal and professional skills. Through a combination of interdisciplinary core courses, internships, lab exchanges, skill-building short courses, professional skills development and collaborative and integrative research, NSERC CREATE for Water Security trainees will become knowledgeable, integrative, and entrepreneurial graduates ready to fill the demand for technical experts, innovators, leaders and influential researchers in Canada and beyond.