With the AUCC delegation having moved on to São Paulo, I stayed behind here in Rio to chair a panel at the conference of the Americas.
“Supporting research networks in the Americas” was the theme of the session with a focus on the AUCC’s Canada-Latin America and the Caribbean Research Exchange Grants, or LACREG, program. I started off with a spiel on how this great small grants program has funded over 200 joint research projects over the years bringing Canadian, Caribbean and Latin American minds together. It then turned into something of a master-class in the art of building research networks.
My co-panelists, Margareth Zanchetta from Ryerson University and her two Brazilian partners recounted how their first LACREG grant supporting a community health project eight years ago has acted like a catalyst leading to new partnerships and additional funding from diverse sources in Brazil and Canada.
One partner, Zeilma da Cunha from Universidade Estácio de Sá, for example, has leveraged the LACREG work and connections into a project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research with researchers from Université du Québec à Montréal. Their other partner, Wilson Garcia from Universidade Estadual Paulista, explained how the grant support brought him to Toronto where he established links leading to new collaboration with the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.
On top of all this, Ryerson students have participated in AUCC’s Students for Development program doing internships in Brazil with partner organizations linked to Margareth’s LACREG project.
The breadth of this project’s connections is a veritable best practice in consolidated international collaboration grown from small seed funding. I was happy to share the panel today with these passionate educators and be one more small connection in their growing network.
