The offices of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation (VPRI) and the Vice-President Equity, People and Culture (VP-EPC) are accepting nominations for the Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity.
The award will fund $100,000 over one year for bold and potentially game-changing projects that challenge the status quo, spark transformation and take action to address persistent systemic barriers in the research ecosystem and academia. The Offices of VPRI and VP-EPC will match the award fund with an additional $100,000 for a total of $200,000.
The award is offered by the three federal research funding agencies – the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through the tri-agency Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP). The award will recognize significant and impactful contributions to increase the level of equity in the CRCP and Canada’s research ecosystem more broadly.
One nomination per institution is accepted for the award, and any faculty member meeting the eligibility criteria are eligible for nomination; it is not restricted to Canada Research Chairholders.
To be eligible for nomination, the faculty member(s) must:
- be eligible to receive grant funding from the agencies. Institutional administrators who are eligible to hold grant funding from the agencies are also eligible to be nominated;
- be holding a full-time academic appointment at York University at the time of nomination and for the duration of the award; and
- be in good standing with CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC (e.g., they cannot have eligibility limits placed on them due to not meeting grant reporting requirements for the CRCP or have sanctions in place tied to the agencies’ responsible conduct of research policy).
Current and former Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) are eligible, as are individuals who are not CRCs.
The Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity recognizes the significant and impactful contributions that Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Louise Forsyth, Glenis Joyce, Audrey Kobayashi, Shree Mulay, Susan Prentice, Michèle Ollivier and Wendy Robbins have made to increase the level of equity in the CRCP and Canada’s research ecosystem more broadly, by way of their 2003 Canadian Human Rights complaints and their concerted efforts in the mediation processes, which led to both the 2006 Settlement Agreement and its addendum in 2019.
The award recognizes the contributions of the entire group, while being named after the late Michèle Ollivier and Wendy Robbins, who passed away in 2010 and 2017, respectively, prior to the signing of the 2019 Addendum.
Learn more about the award and submit a nomination for consideration.