UTTRI associated faculty Professor Steven Farber of the Department of Human Geography at UTSC will lead the Suburban Mobilities Cluster of UTSC’s new Clusters of Scholarly Prominence Program (CSPP). The new program is funded by the UTSC Office of the Vice-Principal Research & Innovation.
The Suburban Mobilities Cluster is a multi-disciplinary research program that draws on expertise across nine disciplines to tackle four suburban mobility challenges:
- rising suburban inequalities
- improving transportation design and technology
- climate change, and
- resilience to shocks.
Towards addressing each challenge, the Suburban Mobilities Cluster will advance new research approaches, develop partnerships and engagement, and create student support and embedded training opportunities.
About the Clusters of Scholarly Prominence Program (CSPP)
Created to support strategic research initiatives, the CSPP recently awarded $2.4M in its first competition to four clusters. Development of the clusters will begin this fall.
The CSPP serves to promote self-sustaining, interdisciplinary, inter-departmental, collaborative clusters of scholarship in areas of established and emerging strength at UTSC and which have a demonstrable capacity to augment UofT’s global standing through prominence in research, creative activity and exceptional learning.
CSPP-supported clusters are expected to:
- generate impactful, transformative research that transcends traditional departmental and institutional boundaries and thereby enables UTSC to create and disseminate new knowledge and innovations that will benefit the citizens of Canada and beyond
- apply for/succeed in major, large-value funding competitions
- become self-sustaining
- foster strategic global research alliances such as the VPRI/VPI initiative of Global Research Alliances
Clusters must be led by a UTSC faculty member and consist of between five and 10 members, with representation from at least two departments and/or centres at the UTSC, and the majority of members are expected to have primary appointments at UTSC.
Link to announcement from UTSC’s Office of the Vice-Principal Research & Innovation