Grant: CCI Mobilize Grants

The overarching goal of this application is to accelerate community health and well-being by addressing the applied research needs of Sheridan College's partners. Sheridan primarily serves the diverse communities in the regions of Halton and Peel. Industry and community stakeholders in these regions have identified health and well-being as a priority, with innovation needed to address a spectrum of challenges including: pandemic-related mental and physical health issues and repercussions on businesses, healthy aging, chronic disease prevention and management, and community-level challenges impacting inclusion and well-being. This Mobilize grant will allow us to respond strategically to these needs through four main objectives: growing and diversifying our network to serve a broader range of partners, including not-for-profits; expanding our capacity in health and well-being research and innovation at the college; increasing cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary research to tackle complex partner needs; and enhancing meaningful student training opportunities. Building on the significant expertise of our Research Centres and Faculties, we will accomplish these objectives by filling critical staffing gaps to support partnership development, coordination of interdisciplinary research, and outreach and dissemination, and by providing rapid access to Seed Funds to enable early-stage research activities to serve our communities, engage faculty, and train students. Supporting healthy communities is an institutional priority. We anticipate that this funding will help advance our strategic research objectives and lead to numerous benefits for our partners, including improved products, services and productivity; greater equity and belonging among our community members; and the resulting long-term health, societal, and economic benefits for the regions we serve. In short, the proposed funding will catalyze lasting impacts for Sheridan and for our communities.