Canadian Institute of Health Research Awards $2 Million for National Rural Research Project

UNBC’s Dr. Margot Parkes and a team of researchers and partners from across Canada have secured a five-year research grant focused on working together across sectors to prevent adverse impacts from resource development, with specific emphasis on rural, remote and Indigenous communities. The study will receive $2 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
The team of more than 60 people will work together as the ECHO Network (Environment, Community, Health Observatory) and will draw on expertise spanning health, social and natural sciences, including UNBC professor Dr. Henry Harder, Dr. Donald B. Rix BC Leadership Chair for Aboriginal Environmental Health, and other UNBC colleagues. The research also draws on experience from four regional cases. Two are in B.C. (one in the North and the other cross-province), and the others in Alberta and New Brunswick respectively. The study also involves a range of national and international partners.
The project involves principal researchers from UNBC (Dr. Margot Parkes, Dr. Henry Harder), Simon Fraser University (Dr. Tim Takaro, Dr. Maya Gislason), the University of Alberta (Dr. Lars Hallstrom, RPLC member), the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (Dr. Craig Stephen) and the Université de Moncton (Dr. Céline Surette). Key partners with each of the regional cases include Alberta’s Battle River Watershed Alliance, the New Brunswick Environmental Network, and B.C.’s Northern Health Authority and First Nations Health Authority (FHNA). It will also involve numerous other researchers and stakeholders from around the country and the globe, including New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.
For complete press release, courtesy of UNBC, visit: http://www.unbc.ca/releases/43290/unbc-lead-national-research-project-on-impacts-resource-development