Research projects receive seed grants from Collaborations for Health

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/vrkljan1.jpg” caption=”Brenda Vrkljan of the School of Rehabilitation is leading one of the research projects that has received seed grants from Collaborations for Health. Photo courtesy of FHS.”]A diverse group of research projects will be advanced through funding from McMaster University's Collaborations for Health initiative. These projects fall within four key themes and cover topics ranging from reproductive health to driver attentiveness among senior citizens.

A total of eight research projects were successful in receiving seed funding through a call for proposals provided by Collaborations for Health. Each of the projects involves researchers from multiple faculties across the campus who will work together in bringing different perspectives to health-related research questions.

The seed grants are designed to enable preliminary work that will strengthen applications for major research funding from external agencies. More than $60,000 has been provided for the projects that cover a broad range of subjects within one of four priority themes: development across the lifespan, health and the environment, health systems and knowledge translation.

For example, within the health and the environment theme, a team lead by Denys de Catanzaro of the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour will examine how synthetic chemicals found in pesticides, household products, soaps and cosmetics may impact reproductive health, including prenatal sexual differentiation, pubertal development and fertility. The research team includes Warren Foster and Edward Younglai of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Another project, within development across the lifespan and led by Brenda Vrkljan of the School of Rehabilitation Science, brings together expertise in cognitive neuroscience and vision science, motor learning and driver rehabilitation in a pilot project to examine how older drivers process and respond to visual information in their driving environment. The team includes Tim Lee of the Department of Kinesiology and Allison Sekuler, Pat Bennett and Hong-Jin Sun from psychology.

Susan Denburg, associate vice-president, academic for the Faculty of Health Sciences, who leads Collaborations for Health, said the provision of seed grants is a significant step in the University-wide initiative promoting cross-disciplinary research.

“The projects that have been funded are all excellent examples of new collaborative research, focused within our specific themes, that require the insights and expertise of various disciplines in order to address health-related questions that are multi-dimensional,” she said. “We hope this first round of seed grants will provide the support needed to allow these projects to be competitive in external funding competitions.”

For a complete list of projects funded by the Collaborations for Health seed grants, please click here.