Global Call for Ideas – Webinar

hello and welcome everyone to cpar's
information webinar on our recently
launched global call for ideas
my name is lauren goldstein and i am
cpar's manager strategic research
initiatives responsible for managing the
global call
this webinar will be presented in
english and will be recorded and posted
on cpar's website with captioning in
french in the coming weeks
to ask a question please please use the
q a feature at the bottom of your screen
and feel free to do so at any time i
will begin by providing a short overview
of cfar
our research programs and the global
call for ideas and then open the floor
to answer any questions you might have
on june 15th cfar launched the global
call for ideas which is our mechanism to
create new research programs
this is a multi-stage competitive
process asking the research community
what are the most pressing questions of
global importance
we use this process to launch new
research programs to ensure our research
portfolio addresses the most important
questions facing science and humanity
before i go through the details of the
global call i want to tell you a little
bit more about cfar and what our
research programs look like
cpar is a canadian-based global research
organization that convenes extraordinary
minds to address the most
most important questions facing science
and humanity
founded in 1982 we support long-term
interdisciplinary international
collaborations
cfar is not a traditional funder of
research but instead
we are a convener providing the world's
top researchers the opportunity to meet
in an environment that inspires trust a
culture of risk-taking
and accelerates discovery we create and
sustain
long-term international
interdisciplinary research networks
to tackle the world's most pressing
questions from different perspectives
our community includes more than 400
researchers from 161 institutions
in 18 countries
through our research program cfar works
toward advancing knowledge
mobilizing knowledge and the development
of future research leaders
our next generation initiatives
including the cfair as viele global
scholars program
support outstanding early career
researchers through mentorship and
networking opportunities
the work of our research program leads
to transformative knowledge that makes
important contributions to the global
research agenda
we also work with stakeholders outside
of academia to ensure that this
transformative research informs policy
and practice
cfar is generously supported by canada's
federal and provincial governments as
well as foundations
corporations and private donors we work
to connect our research programs with
interested partners to help accelerate
discovery
cfar currently has 12 research programs
across four broad theme areas
life and health individuals and society
information and matter
and earth and space our research
programs ask questions ranging from
boundaries membership and belonging is
it possible to have a world without us
and them
to quantum materials how could quantum
materials transform our society
some examples of the interdisciplinary
nature of our research programs include
our brain mind and consciousness program
which brings together neuroscientists
psychologists and philosophers
to explore the origins and mechanisms of
consciousness
innovation equity in the future of
prosperity includes economists
sociologists and engineers among others
to determine how innovation can be
beneficial to all
cpar research programs bring together
international interdisciplinary
researchers who work together for
five-year terms
programs are led by two co-directors
engage 15 to 25 fellows from around the
world
from a mix of career stages and include
an advisory committee
cfar research programs are not bound to
any one discipline
and take the perspective of many
disciplines to study the world's most
intractable problems
these types of challenges necessitate
interdisciplinarity
cfar research program meetings are not
your typical meetings
we encourage risk taking and promote
intellectual freedom and creativity
our program meetings are an opportunity
to bring work not yet in the public
domain for challenging but safe feedback
if you hear something you've heard
before then that's a failure of a cpar
meeting
our research programs are long-term
engagements for sustained conversations
we purposefully take a long-term view
the kinds of achievements we strive for
cannot happen overnight
through a long-term sustained network
approach we promote deep collaborations
among our program members
resulting in groups where the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts
the goal of knowledge mobilization or km
at cpar is to drive research impact
beyond academia
specifically km activities aim to inform
innovations in policy and practice based
on the collective research insights
created through receipt bar research
program interactions
each program prioritizes sectors or
areas where there is high potential for
their work to achieve
impact it's an opportunity to
collaborate across sectors and learn
about non-academic perspectives and
expertise
and vice versa to spur both new research
questions and new sector directions
the knowledge mobilization team at cpar
supports the implementation of a
program-driven km strategy
and helps facilitate engagement with
stakeholders outside academia
for example the humans in the microbiome
program which takes a multi-disciplinary
look at how
microbes that live in and on us affect
our health development and even behavior
is working with public health schools to
develop a new public health curricula
integrating emerging evidence from the
program's research
cpar programs are not assessed based on
achievement of specific or predetermined
milestones
we take a long-term view and there's an
expectation of evolution as the program
progresses
membership will expand intellectual
directions will change
and the people in the room will help
determine where we go
so how does cpar support our research
programs
we work closely with the program members
to support the evolution of the program
we manage the budget to ensure the
resources are available to sustain
collaborations
we look for research partnership
opportunities on behalf of the program
and also work with our strategic
communications team to raise the profile
of members
additionally cpar offers its program
members undesignated research support
cfair programs meet twice a year for two
to three days for in-person
collaborations
cfar provides the logistical support and
planning for program meetings
including covering travel and
accommodation costs we also offer
catalyst grants which are high risk high
reward seed funds for collaboration
between program members
these small grants are available to
existing program members to help further
the vision of the program
and provide funding for ideas that
aren't quite ready for a traditional
granting
agency cfar also encourages
cross-programmatic collaborations across
our portfolio
working with our program members we
often see common themes emerge or areas
of interest to multiple programs
we provide the opportunity for fellows
from different programs to meet and
collaborate
furthering the interdisciplinary
collaborations
cfar has been supporting research
programs for almost 40 years
to provide a sense of our long-term view
and support here are a few examples of
cpar programs achievements
cfar looks to the big picture and a good
example of this is our work with ai
research
our first research program started in
1983 was artificial intelligence
robotics and society
which included ai pioneer jeffrey hinton
as one of its members
today hinton and cpar program members
yahshua bengio and jan lacoon are widely
acknowledged as the pioneers of deep
learning
they were awarded the am touring award
also known as the nobel prize for
computing
in 2017 the government of canada
appointed cfar to develop and lead the
pan canadian ai strategy
the world's first ai strategy and 125
million
investment in machine learning research
training and innovation
population health and well-being has
been a core focus of cpar's portfolio
since the mid-1980s
today it's well known that the first
years of life are crucial to human
development
we all mentioned what we know about this
crucial time of life to see bars founder
dr fraser mustard and his work on the
early years report
a seminal series of recommendations that
laid the foundations for full-day
kindergarten and parenting centers
our child and brain development program
continues to explore the early years and
how childhood experiences affect
lifelong health
currently our longest running program
founded in the 1980s cfar's gravity and
the extreme universe program has brought
together world-leading researchers from
astrophysics cosmology computational
astronomy and high-energy physics to
study the most extreme events in the
universe
in order to understand its origin and
evolution
with collaboration from cpr fellows the
revolutionary canadian hydrogen
intensity mapping experiment or
chime is a radio telescope that is
helping astronomers map the universe and
understand its most abiding mysteries
chime was originally designed to map the
large-scale structure of the universe
and understand its origin
but discussions at cpar meetings played
an important role in realizing the
telescope could serve dual purposes
it's now also being used to capture fast
radio bursts
quick extremely high energy signals from
distance galaxies that have baffled
astronomers since their discovery in
2007.
now that we've looked at seatbar more
generally i'd like to turn to discuss
the global call in more detail
at cfar we believe the future of being
human is our next challenge
the pandemic has highlighted that the
world was already experiencing multiple
crises
from rising inequalities to tightening
borders at the same time the pandemic
has led to international scientific
cooperation
and scientific and technological
progress we are at an inflection point
and it's in this context that cfar asks
for global call proposals on the theme
of the future of being human we invite
the research community to ask new
questions about our complex emerging
world
where the issues under study are
entangled and dynamic
what is the intersection of human
science and technology
social and cultural systems and our
environment in the long term
we're confronting challenging problems
that necessitate a diverse team
incorporating multiple disciplines to
engage in a sustained dialogue to
develop new insights
and change the conversation on important
questions facing science and humanity
there are three application stages for
the global call process
currently we are accepting registrations
through our application system until
august 17th
the registration requires up to four
team members to provide short details
about how their proposed research
program connects to the theme the future
of being human
and the required disciplinary breadth to
explore this
following an internal review all
eligible registration teams will be
invited to submit a letter of intent
in addition a select number of teams
will be invited to participate in
pre-loi strategy sessions
these virtual workshops will be held in
the fall and will be offered to teams
who may be unfamiliar with cfar or come
from disciplines that might need more
time to build into a network
letters of intent will ask for more
details including sections on research
significance
excellence of the research team
knowledge mobilization potential
leadership alignment with cfar's mission
and vision and equity diversity and
inclusion
lois will ask for a minimum of four
additional team members
up to a total of eight additional team
members they are due january 26
2022 lois will be externally reviewed by
our international review body as well as
our president's research council
a short list of lois will be invited to
the next stage in spring 2022.
team shortlisted to the full proposal
stage will work with cfar and proposal
development
in the summer of 2022 cfar and full
proposal teams will participate in
proposal development workshops
following the workshops teams of up to
15 total members will submit their full
proposals in fall 2022
full proposals will be reviewed by an
expert review panel in the president's
research council
the research council will make
recommendations to seatbar's president
about funding decisions
cfar's board of directors will make the
final decision based on the president's
recommendation by march 2023
new programs will officially start april
1st 2023
cfar is committed to equity diversity
and inclusion
we recognize that bringing together
individuals from multiple backgrounds
perspectives and experiences is integral
to advancing excellence and increasing
the impact of our organization
we ask that applicants read our equity
diversity and inclusion action plan
and be prepared to address plans for
equity diversity inclusion at the loi
and full proposal stages throughout the
application process
we expect that teams grow from a small
team of three to four at the
registration stage to up to 15 when
submitting the full proposal
we expect that diversity will be
considered throughout the process as
teams grow
we will be sending a self-identification
questionnaire to all team members as
they join the proposal
well required the questionnaire does
provide the option of prefer not to
answer if that is preferred
we ask that applicants indicate how
equity diversity and inclusion
considerations have factored into the
proposed research program
sifar aims to create a culture that
embodies the principles of equity
diversity inclusion in all aspects of
our work
this concludes the presentation portion
of today's webinar

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