Announcement of Funding for New Innovative Research

Smart Prosperity Institute is pleased to announce the research projects that have been selected for funding in response to the latest Economics and Environmental Policy Research Network (EEPRN) request for proposals. Collectively, almost $500,000 is being awarded to these research projects. The final decision was not easy. We received almost 60 promising proposals from across Canada, with more than 10 proposals from international researchers.

The successful projects covered a diverse range of subject matter, each falling within one of the following topics:

Policies for a Low-Carbon Economy

These projects seek to examine the evidence base for policies and pathways to effectively, efficiently, and equitably combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They have a view to implement the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, as well as Canada’s international emissions reductions commitments and longer term, mid-century deep decarbonisation goals. Proposals were also welcome that applied behavioural economics to study expected responses to different carbon pricing approaches, or policies for a low-carbon economy.

Innovation and Competitiveness

These research projects seek to identify evidence of how well-designed climate or environmental policies and/or regulations can drive clean innovation, the transition to a more circular, resource-efficient economy, and the associated competitiveness outcomes in different sectors of the Canadian economy.

Conservation and Species at Risk

Addressing the role of environmental policy, and particularly market-based instruments (MBIs), is the focus of this set of research projects.  They encourage the productive use of natural capital and environmental conservation in support of Canada's Natural Legacy goals from Budget 2018, as well as Pathway to Canada Target 1. This includes improved protection of land, water, air quality, oceans, fish stocks, biodiversity and species at risk. Projects might address the protection and conservation of Canada’s lands and species, the use of natural capital as infrastructure, and the assessment and mitigation of environmental risk related resource development projects.

Data Set Development and Linkages

The final group of research projects we funded seek to create new datasets or clean up existing datasets that could be used to support future research projects in the EEPRN priority areas.  Projects might include those that seek to develop new datasets to evaluate the linkages between environmental policy or regulatory design, and innovation and/or competitiveness outcomes.  Projects might identify data gaps and propose appropriate methods to gather relevant data to evaluate current or emerging policies in Canada.

To learn more about the funded projects and their researchers, click here.