QES 2014

Project title: Global Generation: Energy and Environment Network

Summary: Through the Global Generation: Energy and Environment (G2E2) Network, the University of Alberta aims to develop an engaged community of young leaders; inspire them to discover their passion in any topic related to energy and environment; and create space and foster skills such that debate and learning can happen across the multiple perspectives that students will bring to this broad topic. The Network’s goal is to motivate participants to continue to expand the field of knowledge in their chosen area of interest and to remain engaged in careers and personal commitments that advance solutions to securing an energy and environmental future.

The program supports young researchers from all disciplines for three-month placements at partner universities where they are working on such projects as genomics and supercomputing to help smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa control whiteflies, which have caused devastation of local cassava crops; enzyme production to degrade organic micro pollutants present in wastewater; and treatment processes for aqueous pollutants including POPs, PPCPs, pesticides and veterinary antibiotics.

Project title: Improving Individual and Community Wellness in the Commonwealth

Summary: This project supports UAlberta graduate students from five faculties – Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences (ALES), Native Studies, Nursing, Rehabilitation Medicine, and the School of Public Health – to pursue scholarship, research, and internships related to Individual and Community Wellness. The project showcases Canada’s expertise in environmental and life sciences to address this broad issue with key researchers from Commonwealth partners. It aims to connect students with community and industry, as well as provide leadership development and campus engagement opportunities.

The project will expose young professionals early on in their career to alternative solutions and methodologies to address a range of complex issues throughout the Commonwealth from individual wellness in examining food and nutrition, health, chronic disease and pain management to community wellness in addressing indigenous governance and the various components of community wellness including physical, emotional, spiritual and mental well-being in a post-colonial society.

Project title: Sport Leaders International Internship Program

Summary: QEScholars build sport and development programs in Commonwealth countries. Four or five outgoing Canadian interns (undergraduate and graduate sport management students) per semester focus on designing and delivering sustainable sport programs and building sport system capacity.

During four-month internships, QEScholars will work on a range of programs including various sports training, development and positive life skills for students and coaches.

Project title: Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships

Summary: Scholars from the University of Calgary complete a 90-day placement in Ghana, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka or Uganda through collaborative partnerships with a mandate of improving the lives of the poor and the vulnerable. Undergraduate or graduate students from the fields of nursing, development studies, engineering, and education engage in projects related to maternal and newborn health, community-based rehabilitation, natural disasters impact, and community education. Scholars from the Commonwealth undertake graduate studies at UCalgary related to the field of international development applicable to the work of partner institutions.

Project title: Preparing young Commonwealth QEII Scholars to successfully contribute to the needs of a shrinking world

Summary: Dalhousie’s QES program offers international opportunities for Dalhousie students across several faculties. Graduate students in Marine Management (or related programs) can apply for internships in the Caribbean. Graduate students in Global Health fields and International Development Studies can apply for funded scholarships to conduct thesis-related field research in Tanzania and Uganda; and senior undergraduate and graduate students in Global Health fields, International Development Studies and Agriculture can apply for internships with non-government organizations in Tanzania and Uganda.

Project title: Emily Carr Jubilee Art and Design + Media Research Scholars

Summary: This project aims to support Canadian students whose research activities can be enhanced through strategic partnerships with UK Universities, and for indigenous students from New Zealand to study art, design and media at a graduate level. Outgoing scholars will conduct primary research in the field or work within a practice-driven studio setting to create and collect a body of work that will become the focus of their research project.

The research conducted by outgoing scholars during the third semester of study becomes a pivotal part of graduate students’ thesis projects. While both of our graduate degrees centre around studio practice and its tangible outcomes, it is expected that students research and develop a rigorous critical stance in order to synthesize research, theory, and practice, and to recognize and develop nascent areas of reflective and studio design practice.

As a part of our Indigenous Scholar project, Emily Carr intends to provide a thriving creative and critical environment at a graduate level for students to share and contribute indigenous practices.

Project title: The Mining Life Cycle: discovery, development, remediation, social license and the environment

Summary: The project involves studies related to the Mining Life Cycle, including mineral exploration, ore deposit formation research and studies related to the impact of mineral resource development on the social, physical and biological environment.

The project focuses on the Platreef deposit discovered by Ivanhoe Mines in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, which is served by University of Limpopo (UL). The goal is to provide access to world-class research facilities and training opportunities at Laurentian to both faculty and graduate students at UL, and opportunities for Laurentian graduate students to experience teaching and research in South Africa.

One of the primary objectives of this project is to upgrade the quality of earth science teaching at University of Limpopo. Many of the junior faculty at UL only have BSc and BSc honours degrees. Incoming South African students (undergraduates and junior faculty members) pursue their graduate research and degree at the Laurentian University Harquail School of Earth Sciences. Some of their researches are on Bushveld Platreef mineral deposits in South Africa, or Greenstone Belt deposits in northern Ontario.

Project title: Réseau ULaval-Commonwealth : des forêts pour un monde en mutation

Summary: Sous l’égide de la Faculté de Foresterie, Géographie et Géomatique et de ses spécialistes dans les domaines des sciences du bois et de la forêt, ce réseau s’intéresse aux impacts des changements environnementaux sur les systèmes forestiers et agroforestiers dans une perspective d’adaptation, de résilience, de mise en valeur et d’utilisation responsable. Les projets de recherche des boursiers abordent quatre grands axes :

1) l’évaluation des changements environnementaux et leurs impacts sur la «performance» des systèmes forestiers et agroforestiers;
2) la mise au point et l’évaluation d’approches pour atténuer les effets des changements environnementaux sur ces systèmes;
3) l’évaluation des impacts et le développement de solutions dans les chaînes de création de valeur, et
4) l’intégration des savoirs et leur diffusion auprès des communautés dépendantes des forêts et des services qu’elles procurent.

Project title: Promoting international community-university partnerships in global and indigenous health

Summary: The project provides travel scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students completing health research or clinical field placements in Australia, India, Kenya, or New Zealand, as well as scholarships for international graduate students from partner countries to visit the University of Manitoba. The partner sites in Australia and New Zealand are Indigenous-health focused. The international placements provide an opportunity for students to broaden their skill set, contribute credit to their degree, expand their networks, and experience living in another country.

Project title: Common Threads through the Commonwealth

Summary: The project will fund research on health, equity and well-being in partnering commonwealth organizations.

The internship opportunities, while having a common thread of exploring innovative health solutions, are extremely varied and invite scholars to participate in both research and service delivery for: refugee and migrant issues, water and sanitation, urban planning, equitable access to care, social entrepreneurship, mental health, among others.

Project title: Quantitative biology and Medical Genetics for the world

Summary: The project provides interdisciplinary training at the interface between medical genomics and quantitative biology to a new generation of Canadian and Commonwealth scientists.

It builds upon a long-term partnership of scientists and educators at the McGill University and Genome Québec Innovation Centre (MUGQIC) and the University of Oxford, and links to the Kenya Medical research Institute (KEMRI), the Uganda Virus Research Institute and MRC Unit, the Noguchi Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana and the Clinical Infectious Diseases Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa.

Project title: Queen Elizabeth Scholarship in Strengthening Health Systems

Summary: The project is designed to foster the development of knowledge and skills of emerging leaders committed to health-system strengthening in Commonwealth countries. Scholars learn the importance of strengthening health systems and how to apply this knowledge to their current academic work while participating with their Commonwealth hosts, and in their future work as potential leaders in this field.

Project title: MUN Globalization 101

Summary: Through the QES program, the MUN Globalization 101 project enhances existing collaboration activities by funding incoming graduate students from India to study in the fields of engineering, biochemistry, physics, environmental science, and gender studies. These global leaders of tomorrow will be exposed to professional development, and leadership and community engagement opportunities that will round out their academic training and research during their two years in Canada.

Project title: Partenariat pour un leadership en santé globale bilingue dans le Commonwealth

Summary: Le projet s’appuie sur des partenariats établis par des professeurs de l’ESPUM avec des ONG, des instituts de recherche et des universités d’Afrique Subsaharienne et de l’Asie du Sud. Des  étudiants canadiens se voient offrir des possibilités de séjour d’études, de recherche ou de stages dans les instituions partenaires, alors que plusieurs étudiants étrangers auront l’opportunité de venir faire des séjours d’études/recherches à l’Université de Montréal.

Project title: Building experiential learning, capacity and knowledge exchange through the AIMS-NEI Network and new Commonwealth partnerships

Summary: This QES project promotes the mobility of students and exchange of knowledge between Canadians and Africans, in partnership with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a pan-African network of centres of excellence in mathematical sciences. The project builds on the recent success of the AIMS-HeadStart Initiative and provides new opportunities for students to build on their knowledge and benefit from experiences abroad.

Project title: Queen Elizabeth II Scholarships in International Community-Based Rehabilitation

Summary: The project provides Canadian graduate students in Rehabilitation Science and Occupational Therapy, and scholars from low-income African and Asian countries, with a unique opportunity to learn and connect internationally, collaborate with peers, and effect change for people with disabilities and their families.

MSc students in the Rehabilitation Studies (RHBS) program conduct thesis-related research, helping to develop insight and understanding of the multidisciplinary and inter-professional aspects of rehabilitation. Student interns from the Occupational Therapy (OT) program complete community development and practicum experiences.

This program also supports PhD scholars from low-income Commonwealth countries with a specialization in international CBR.

Project title: Queen Elizabeth II Scholarships in Leaders in Element Migration in the Near-Surface Environment

Summary: This project is supporting novel and integrated undergraduate and graduate student training in developing an understanding of element mobility in local environments; the lasting impacts on social planning and policies on mineral exploration; environmental monitoring; and the anthropogenic impacts of farming, mining and industrial land use.

These scholarships provide the opportunity for outgoing Master’s students in the Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering (GSGE) program to conduct thesis-related research in Australia, the United Kingdom and Zambia. Undergraduate GSGE student interns will be embedded in a research program in Australia and Zambia. Incoming Master’s students from Commonwealth countries (e.g., Australia, India, United Kingdom, Zambia) will be able to conduct a research thesis within the Queen’s Facility for Isotope Research laboratories in the GSGE department.

Project title: Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship

Summary: Outgoing graduate students are studying or doing research in the areas of: organizational behaviour psychology, clean energy development and sustainable energy alternatives, social comparison and risk-taking, and policy and legislation. Incoming graduate students are studying or doing research in magmatic and metasomatic processes, with a concentration on crystal fractionation. The University of Regina is also mobilizing senior undergraduate students with a mandatory fieldwork, practicum, or internship component of their degree to Commonwealth partner institutions. Broad areas of interest for these students include sport or facility management, fitness assessment and training, and pediatric or geriatric care.

Project title: Innovative Use of ICT in and Agri-Food Technology in Integrating Cultural Preferences into the Agro-Processing Sectors of Canada and Jamaica

Summary: This program looks to develop and market new agro food products and new information and communications technology (ICT) based innovations for business applications within Grace Kennedy, a company in Kingston Jamaica, as well as within the University of Technology. This project hopes to open new avenues for the universities to work together, and connect the Computer Science-based student organizations at both schools to exchange skills and knowledge and gain cross-cultural understanding.

Project title: Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Uganda

Summary: The program developed by two university partners began by focusing on the intersections between technology and development, but has broadened in scope to cover community development more generally.

Project title: Community partnership for food security and health

Summary: Undergraduate health science students undertake a global health internship in Uganda, which has an ever pressing need to increase food security and health due to a growing population, lack of resources, land degradation, poverty, gender inequality, poor infrastructure, HIV/AIDS and global warming.   It provides them with fresh perspectives on global health and on the social and political determinants of health and food security.

Project title: Canada-Sub Saharan Africa (CANSSA) training program in global health leadership

Summary: This program will support the next generation of Canadian and African leaders in global health.   It supports training in priority areas of global health research and practice, including maternal and child health; HIV and other diseases; social issues, such as health equity; and political/regulatory barriers to implementation.

Project title: Literacy and Indigenous Language Education

Summary: This project partners with three non-government organizations, located in India, Rwanda and South Africa, to promote literacy and indigenous language education through the various programs of these NGOs.

Project title: Inclusive Innovation for Development

Summary: The Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto is   to build a network of student leaders trained in inclusive innovation to work together to address the challenges of poor communities and how to promote innovative and workable solutions.

Project title: UTSC Centre for Critical Development Studies (CCDS)

Summary: International internships are designed to provide students with experiential learning opportunities, professional development skills, and field research in a Global South Commonwealth country.

Incoming graduate students will be integrated into the academic life of the Master of Environmental Science.

Project title: Immunology as a Platform for Sustainable International Partnership

Summary: The five main areas of focus are: women’s health, infectious diseases, cancer, life sciences technology commercialization/implementation, and scientific communication. Scholars and interns are also learning about local community issues and have engaged in outreach activities with local communities beyond their scientific and academic studies.

Project title: Establishing Right Relations: Advancing Development and Prosperity for Indigenous and Settler Populations in the Commonwealth

Summary: This program will link scholars and thought leaders with others around the Commonwealth to develop and share knowledge about the most effective approaches to ensuring that economic development meets the needs of indigenous people as well as the descendants of settlers in Commonwealth countries.

Interns and scholars are focusing on relationships between indigenous communities and the following areas: economic development, land reform, natural resources, education, agriculture, and health.

Project title: GREEN LEADERS – Scholarship Program for Commonwealth Forests

Summary: The project will focus on two of the world’s biodiversity hotspots: India and Africa, where natural resource conservation challenges are paramount.

The project will train international MSc. and Professional Masters scholars as well as offering international students visiting research appointments. Canadian students will do research, courses or internships in areas ranging from climate change research, remote sensing technologies, new bio-products, livelihood development to wildlife conservation.

Project title: Innovative Solutions for Developing and Managing Climate Resilient Transport Infrastructure in South Asia Region: A Life-cycle Thinking Approach

Summary: This interdisciplinary project enables researchers in engineering, management, and sciences to conduct fundamental and applied-research projects related to infrastructure management, innovative materials development, socio-economic studies, and life-cycle thinking. The new projects will look at possible ways to improve, support and protect transport infrastructure and systems with consideration to climate change.

Project title: Urban Food Systems in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and the Fraser Valley: Capacity Building for Policy and Planning

Summary: Scholars and interns carry out research investigations and demonstration projects to promote best practices of urban agriculture and contribute to a broader goal of mitigation of global climate change impacts and resultant food shortages.

It creates opportunities for student interns and scholars to work collaboratively with community members, non-government and community-based organizations, and governments to identify key policies and planning guidelines that will increase the opportunity for sustainable urban agricultural practices and develop a range of toolkits that local government and community members can use within each region to initiate urban agricultural interventions.

Project title: Connected Learning across the Commonwealth

Summary: Activities focus on: health (specifically mothers and infants), good governance, youth education, environmental sustainability and community development. Students design and deliver youth education programs for those at risk and scholars contribute to existing programs to support environmental sustainability including ocean governance. In collaboration with its university partner institutions.

Project title: Cross-Cultural Indigenous Knowledge Exchange (CIKE)

Summary: This collaboration will focus on Indigenous community economic, social and cultural development through language revitalization, Indigenous knowledge protection and cultural heritage preservation. This project will offer UNBC First Nations Studies (FNST) students and/or Indigenous students in other disciplines to experience Maori culture and exchange knowledge with other scholars and traditional knowledge-holders in New Zealand.

Maori scholars will come to UNBC and participate in FNST classes as well as visit Aboriginal communities to share the Maori cultural restoration experience in the Canadian context.

Project title: Queen Elizabeth II Scholars at University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Summary: The QES program at UOIT includes all components of the Diamond Jubilee scholarship program. To date, outbound graduate and undergraduate students have travelled to four continents for experiential learning opportunities. These research or internship placements were all embedded within each student’s academic program.

Graduate students undertake work related to the development of their theses. Graduate research exchanges include Forensic Psychology and Criminology, Health Sciences, Computer Modelling / Applied Mathematics, Material Science and Energy Engineering.

Undergraduates are selected from specific academic programs to take on internships in their field of study.

Project title: Integrating Innovative Research and Training Methods for Improved Sustainable Livelihoods of Smallholder Dairy Farms

Summary: Canadian veterinary interns and nutrition interns will develop and deliver training programs in cattle health management and family nutrition for farms, schools and women’s groups. Training methods will include face-to-face seminars, demonstrations and train-the-trainer sessions.   The integrated activities of this project include field-based training, teaching of evidence-based best practices, and engaging partners in participatory research methods.

International students will investigate pedagogical challenges, or conduct research on drought-tolerant crops for human food and cattle feed appropriate for the climatic extremes expected. Others will evaluate advanced methods of improving cattle reproduction and cow.

Project title: Formation scientifique d’étudiants indiens pour la recherche en énergie durable et en sciences biomédicales.

Summary: L’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) accueille 10 étudiants indiens qui complèteront un doctorat dans les domaines de l’énergie durable et des sciences biomédicales. Ces candidats auront la chance d’accroître leurs niveaux de compétence en recherche et en collaboration internationale, et ainsi d’améliorer leur employabilité.

Project title: Crossing Borders

Summary: The Crossing Borders program has been developed in partnership with leading migration scholars, research institutions and civil society organizations across the Asia-Pacific. All of the Commonwealth partner organizations reflect the program’s objectives and values, and are committed to creating more equitable and effective democratic institutions and processes, increasing democratic participation, and promoting migrant rights across the Asia-Pacific region.

Project title: CANCOM‐COOP (Canada‐Commonwealth Co‐op): Developing world ready graduates through international Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based Work Integrated Learning (WIL)

Summary: This program enables the development of world ready graduates through international STEM based WIL by exposing students to hands‐on work opportunities. The project will enable students to pursue these valuable opportunities and expand the CANCOM‐COOP partners’ abilities to foster international WIL and cross‐cultural understanding. CANCOM‐COOP will also enable North‐South knowledge transfer and integration to build student and partner learning capacity.

Project title: Enhancing Health and Science Education

Summary: This project enables students to enhance their education in health and basic sciences by increasing opportunities to engage in collaborative research.

Outgoing Canadian research interns contribute their knowledge and skills to ongoing research in cancer and genetic diseases and have participated in research related to knowledge and experiences of heritable cancer survivors, evaluation of a capacity building program in cancer pathology, and a national registry of haemophilia patients.

Project title: Building Resilience in Coastal Communities

Summary: Scholars undertake research, project work and internships in collaboration with community partners in Belize and on Vancouver Island that aim to support the capacity to foster sustainable economic activity, particularly tourism; management of water in coastal zones, including drinking water; developing and managing parks and protected areas in or near coastal communities; coastal communities’ responses to climate change; and, sustainable aquatic foods and local agricultural production.

Project title: Building Research Capacity in LMICs through the Global Index of Wellbeing (GLOWING) Project

Summary: The project supports the development of a global index of wellbeing, filling a gap in benchmarking the wellbeing of populations in LMICs as they undergo tremendous environmental change (climate, demographic, economic, epidemiologic) also allowing the monitoring of impacts of policy interventions.

These scholarships will build the capacity of new young indigenous scholars who will become the primary architects of the index in their home country, providing numerous and on-going science-to-policy bridging opportunities.

Project title: Waterloo-Singapore graduate student exchange in quantum information science and technology

Summary: The University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) are two of the largest centres devoted to quantum information science and technology research.

This project sustains and expands student exchanges between the two institutes to provide them access to expertise available beyond their home institutions and gain credit.

Project title: Professional Masters Program on Global Health Systems in Africa

Summary: The Master of Management of Applied Sciences (MMASc) Program in Global Health Systems in Africa (GHS-A) is a comprehensive professional degree program that provides an environment for transdisciplinary and holistic approaches to becoming global leaders. Key thematic areas are to combat poverty, hunger, disease, and environmental degradation while promoting the health and equality of those most vulnerable, such as women and children.

Project title: Collaborative Research and Training Program on Global Health Systems in Africa

Summary: The Collaborative Degree on Global Health Systems in Africa combines discipline-based degree programs with transdisciplinary training in Global Health Systems in Africa. A key objective of the program is to develop leaders who will help solve complex global health problems.

The QES program provides short-term research internships for Canadian and African graduate students. These internships can provide the core of their research project or serve as an enrichment activity above and beyond their thesis, deepening and expanding their research skills and experiences. Students will attain a graduate degree in their home department plus enrichment credit in Global Health Systems in Africa.

Project title: Laurier-Ghana Partnership for Human Rights & Social Justice

Summary: The QES program will develop Queen Elizabeth (QE) Scholars who have the competence and commitment to make an impact in the promotion of human rights and social justice. Leadership across borders requires intercultural skills. Scholars develop presentation, collaboration, and organizational skills through participation in various public engagement opportunities to create a community of change agents with enhanced collaborative capacity.

Project title: An international palliative care collaboration: Engaging scholars and communities to support best practices

Summary: Palliative care improves the quality of life of individuals and families who are facing life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering, and the provision of compassionate care at end of life. Care is based upon early identification, correct assessment, treatment of pain, and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual (World Health Organization). Healthcare analysts emphasize a need to prioritize end-of-life and palliative care services in all settings (hospital, community, and long-term care) to address the needs of individuals who are diagnosed with all forms of life limiting chronic illnesses.

The United Kingdom (UK) and Canada have developed evidence-based frameworks and toolkits for palliative care that are used globally to support excellence in evidence-based palliative care.  Leveraging the shared scholarship and community practices of both countries has great potential to improve palliative care interventions, promote research partnerships, as well as increase the quality, delivery, and funding for palliative care in Canada and the UK.

Project title: Canadian Commonwealth Scholarships in Water and Energy

Summary: Clean and safe drinking water and clean energy supplies are needed to sustain economic, agricultural and societal growth, but they are also fundamental for maintaining basic human health and establishing a standard of living equal for everyone. The overarching objective of this project is to develop a network of global citizens and young global leaders who will interact to develop and share practical and cost-effective solutions for water and energy problems facing many Commonwealth and other global communities.

Project title: Incoming University of Winnipeg QEII Diamond Jubilee Scholars

Summary: The QES program for incoming students is designed to offer opportunities for international students to study in a variety of programs, including BioScience, Development Practices, Environmental, Resource and Development Economics, Applied Computer Science, Cultural Studies, and Indigenous Governance.

Project title: Outgoing University of Winnipeg QEII Diamond Jubilee Scholars and Interns

Summary: Canadian grad students undertake study, research, and internship projects in such areas as international development, economic growth for low-income communities, indigenous governance, natural resource economics and gender equality, young people’s rights, and post conflict reconciliation.