The Canadian government is investing $6 million in climate change adaptation and interdisciplinary research at McGill | Newsroom

Two McGill-led climate change mitigation projects receive funding from the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) International Joint Initiative for Research on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. Thirteen researchers receive grants through the NFRF Exploration Competition.

Today, the Honorable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of National Revenue, on behalf of the Honorable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Honorable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, announced over $92 million in funding through the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) to support 165 Canadian-led research projects through two initiatives: the 2023 International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, and the 2023 Exploration competition. The New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF ) is a Government of Canada initiative that supports leading interdisciplinary, international, high-risk, high-reward, transformative and responsive Canadian-led research.

McGill received a total of $2.95 million for two projects in the International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Competition. Professor Chandra Madramootoo, James McGill Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, was awarded $1.5 million from the NFRF’s 2023 International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation competition. Professor Melissa McKinney, Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Ecological Change and Environmental Stressors and associate professor in McGill’s Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received $1.45 million.

Thirteen McGill researchers, including two affiliated with the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center (RI-MUHC), received grants through the Exploration Competition for a total research investment of 3.2 million. Consult the full list of Exploration Grant winners

International Joint Initiative projects are funded to design and implement adaptation and mitigation strategies for vulnerable groups who, due to their physical and socio-economic vulnerability, are most at risk from climate change. Exploration grants support research with a range of impacts: economic, scientific, artistic, cultural, social, technological, environmental or health-related.

“McGill University thanks the Government of Canada for this important investment in leading climate change mitigation and interdisciplinary research programs,” said Martha Crago, Vice-President of Research and Innovation. “For the well-being of the most vulnerable communities and ecosystems in Canada and internationally, we need innovative, adaptive strategies like those being developed by Professors Madramootoo and McKinney. I congratulate them and all researchers on their successes in these funding competitions.

A framework for Caribbean flood resilience

Flooding in coastal and riverine communities due to sea level rise in the countries of Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia poses serious risks to the population, infrastructure and agriculture in these areas. Led by Madramootoo, the NFRF-funded initiative, Collaboratively designed and managed flood resilience framework for affected communities in the Caribbean will be designed in collaboration with communities and national and regional agencies charged with monitoring, adapting and mitigating floods, as well as with non-governmental agencies providing flood relief. The project aims to create a flood resilience framework that will include a co-developed model for predicting and responding to risks, as well as improved policies and an institutional framework for flood risk planning and management. Additional funding for the project is also provided through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

At the national funding announcement hosted by Carleton University, Madramootoo participated in a panel discussion moderated by Valérie Laflamme, Associate Vice President for the Tri-Agency Institutional Programs at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), together with Minister Bibeau, and Elisabeth Gilmore, associate professor in Carleton’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Madramootoo spoke about how his work addresses the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which highlights that unprecedented changes in the Earth’s climate are being observed in every region, affecting all ecosystems and societies, and will continue to intensify with further warming. His project focuses on some of the representative key risks, including risks to low-lying coastal socio-ecological systems, risks associated with critical physical infrastructure, risks to living standards and to food security.

WhaleAdapt: ​​Adapting Vulnerable Subsistence-Based Communities

Countries in the Global South and indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change, partly due to dependence on local, wild-caught food. Although at least 54 species of toothed whales are an important food source in more than 80 countries around the world, significant knowledge gaps exist about whale populations, including about their nutritional value and their socio-economic importance to communities in the context of escalating climate change.

Led by McKinney, the NFRF-funded WhaleAdapt project is an international collaboration of researchers and organizations in Canada, the US, Denmark and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. “The project is guided by an overarching question,” says McKinney.” “How can vulnerable communities dependent on whale consumption successfully adapt to shifting marine resources due to climate change?” The goal, she says, “is to help communities in affected countries make sustainable, healthy and socio-economically viable adaptations to shifting marine resources.” Additional funding for the project is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF).