McMaster-led auto research project receives $2.1 million
Full speed ahead. Charlotte Yates, dean of social sciences and a labour studies professor at McMaster, is the first social scientist to receive an Automotive Partnership Canada grant.
Charlotte Yates, McMaster’s dean of social sciences and a labour studies professor, has been awarded $2.1-million to lead a new auto policy research partnership based at the University.
Federal minister of state (Science and Technology) Gary Goodyear made the announcement today on behalf of Automotive Partnership Canada, an initiative between five federal research and granting agencies.
The research at McMaster will be based in the Canadian Automotive Policy Partnership (CAPP) and will focus on Canada’s quest to keep its automotive manufacturing sector competitive and sustainable in an increasingly challenging global market.
The McMaster project is one of five post-secondary research initiatives Goodyear announced Friday. “Our government is investing in automotive research and development to help usher in greener, better-performing vehicles,” Goodyear says. “Out support also creates jobs and strengthens the economy.”
Yates is the first social scientist to receive an APC grant. She says the project is especially innovative for bringing together a team of social scientists and engineers to examine automotive policy.
“There are several issues, including increased global competition, new global and regional trade regimes and pressing environmental issues, that have contributed to an economic environment that is much different than was present even 10 years ago,” says Yates. “This partnership brings together a range of industry and research experts who will be able to study the key issues affecting the Canadian automotive industry and provide evidence that will help policy makers.”
Several academic and industry partners, including representatives from Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Ford Motor Company of Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers Union, will contribute to the CAPP’s research and policy objectives.
These include developing a technology map for the Canadian automotive industry, evaluating the impact on new product mandates of government financial incentives and assessing the transferability to Canada of policy tools used by governments around the world.
“This unique and interdisciplinary collaboration will allow our researchers and students, to work side-by-side with industry, labour and government to craft policy options that will enhance the global opportunities for Canada’s manufacturing sector,” says Mo Elbestawi, McMaster’s vice-president Research and International affairs.
APC’s support for the partnership, which is part of a larger $145-million initiative announced by the federal government in 2009, enables the creation of a network of experts in automotive manufacturing policy and the training of more than 40 graduate, post-graduate and undergraduate students in evidence-based manufacturing policy.
The primary objective of the five-year McMaster project is to present findings that will assist key policy makers and industry stakeholders.
“The project will be ground-breaking not only because of the breadth of its analysis, but also because of its capacity to build functioning, long-term partnerships between industry, researchers and the government,” says Yates.
The CAPP partnership project will be housed in the manufacturing policy research centre IMPAKT@mac, which is currently being established at McMaster University.
Headed by Yates, IMPAKT@mac will be the only organization dedicated to the field of manufacturing policy in Canada.
