SSHRC invests in McGill COVID-19 research

Earlier today, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the investment of over $4 million in funding through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Partnership Engage Grants to provide short-term and timely support for partnered research activities that will inform decision-making in the public, private or not-for-profit sector.

In response to the early phases of the pandemic crisis, the latest Partnership Engage Grants competition included a special call to address COVID-19-related research to support Canadian researchers who can help provide the data, insight and evidence to guide action in the months and years to come, and to navigate post-pandemic economic and social recovery. Over $3 million of the investment announced today will directly support 139 projects addressing this call. Among the 139 projects funded through this special call are seven McGill-led projects.

One McGill-led project, COVID-19: Advocating for resiliency through understanding the differential impacts of COVID-19 for Black Montrealers, headed by Alicia Boatswain-Kyte, Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, received funding. In partnership with the Cote-des-Neiges Black Community Association Inc. (CDNBCA), this project aims to empower the Black population in Montreal through an innovative collaboration between non-profit, private and research sectors to effectively advocate and make recommendations for planning and implementation of a response to the intersecting forces of racial disparities, underlying conditions and poverty in the face of the pandemic. Together, they will conduct a needs assessment to determine the priorities and risks to Black Montrealers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Daniel J. Levitin, James McGill Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology, also received funding for his project, COVID-19: Music listening habits of Canadians during COVID-19 pandemic. In collaboration with industry partner Music Canada, this research project strives to answer such questions as how music listening habits have changed, how comfortable Canadians will be with going out to see live music and positive impacts of changes in music listening habits, as well as some non-music-related behaviours like domestic and foreign travel, and interest in going back to restaurants. 

Full list of McGill projects funded by SSHRC’s Partnership Engage Grant COVID-19 Special Initiative

• COVID-19: The well-being and equity implications of local accessibility under COVID-19
  Associate Professor Kevin Manaugh of the Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, and the McGill School of Environment, is the principal investigator.  
• COVID-19: From Despair to New Hope: How the Black Lives Matter Protests have given Quebec Black young adults a chance to recover from the damaging psychological effects of the Covid-19 pandemic
  Professor Richard Koestner of the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, is the principal investigator.
• COVID-19 and Child Maltreatment: Perspectives of Child and Youth Advocacy Centers on the Easing of Preventative Measures and the Effect on the Disclosure Process
  Assistant Professor Shanna Williams of the Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, is the principal investigator.
• COVID-19 Research-to-Practice: Enhancing Online Mental Health Resource Provision for Adolescents
  James McGill Professor Nancy Heath of the Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, is the principal investigator. 
• COVID-19: Music listening habits of Canadians during COVID-19 pandemic
  James McGill Professor Emeritus Daniel J. Levitin, of the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, is the principal investigator.
• COVID-19: Advocating for resiliency through understanding the differential impacts of COVID-19 for Black Montrealers
  Assistant Professor Alicia Boatswain-Kyte of the School of Social Work, is the principal investigator.
• COVID-19: Leveraging Virtual Simulation Technology as a Distance Learning Tool to Support Medical and Nursing Students’ during COVID-19
  Assistant Professor Jason Harley of the Department of Experimental Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, is the principal investigator.

Read the official SSHRC press release.

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