A new agreement signed by Dalhousie University and Mitacs will give students a unique opportunity for international collaboration.
A total of $1.8 million in funding has been provided to establish a new collaborative student research mobility program. This will give 150 (up to 50/year for three years) senior undergraduate, graduate students and Postdoctoral fellows from Dalhousie the chance to pursue research exchanges abroad, and 150 (up to 50/year for three years) international students with the opportunity to conduct research at the university.
Mitacs is a not-for-profit organization that fosters growth and innovation in Canada by solving business challenges with research solutions from the best academic institutions at home and around the world. Working with 60 universities, 4,000 companies, and both federal and provincial governments, they build partnerships that support industrial and social innovation in Canada.
“This agreement will give our students a chance to learn more about different cultures, and create projects and actions that will have global impact,” says Dr. Alice Aiken, Vice President Research and Innovation at Dalhousie. “It will also help develop the next generation of researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders.”
Dalhousie University has a longstanding partnership with Mitacs.
In 2015, Hanh Nguyen, a Business English student at Foreign Trade University in Vietnam, applied for the Globalink Research Internship and was matched with a project at Dalhousie and IWK Health Centre’s Centre for Research in Family Health.
The project Hanh Phuc worked on consisted of two components. The first component compared the use of physical punishment in both Canadian and Vietnamese families and the reasons why families use this method of discipline. Along with her supervisor, Dr. Patrick McGrath, Hanh Phuc was able to develop a self-reporting tool that asks parents to identify their reasons for using corporal punishment.
The second component of the project saw Hang Phuc get trained as a coach for Strongest Families, a distance treatment program for families requiring mental health care for their children.
“I love doing research, so this has been great,” says Hang Phuc. “And working with so many people from different cultures has helped my skills.”
For a full list of countries supporting travel and research opportunities from Canada through Mitacs, visit mitacs.ca/globalink.