If you’re a graduate student or post-doctoral fellows concerned about how climate change, technological disruption, artificial intelligence, labour and other issues pose challenges in the areas of foreign policy, trade and international development, Global Affairs Canada wants to hear from you.

Working on collaboration with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Global Affairs Canada is looking for proposals for its International Policy Ideas Challenge 2018.

Ideas should be linked to the priority themes below. However, proposals related to other emerging issues and trends affecting Canada’s international policy will also be considered.

• Promoting democracy in the digital age: challenges and opportunities.
• Preserving and strengthening multilateral diplomacy, including the promotion of human rights, in a multipolar world order.
• Strengthening Canada’s role in promoting inclusive and accountable uses of artificial intelligence.
• Applying a feminist approach and Gender-Based Analysis Plus to Canadian foreign policy, trade, and/or international development, with a focus on the intersection of gender and other social factors.
• Implications of climate change for Canadian trade and investment, foreign policy, and/or international development.
• Technological disruption (e.g. mass deployment of AI, additive manufacturing, Internet of Things) will inevitably progress at a different pace in different countries. Largely biased in favour of skilled labour, it is likely to generate equally varied economic, social, and political impacts and responses. What are the cross-border implications (trade, migration, security) for Canada of the transformative technological change underway?

Applicants are invited to submit brief proposals that are a maximum of 750 words. The authors of 10 winning proposals will be given several months to further develop their ideas into policy briefs, which will then be presented to Government of Canada officials in a day-long symposium hosted by Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa in the fall.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, contact orsadmin@brocku.ca  by Friday, April 20.

The program is also open to researchers affiliated with a Canadian non-profit organization, such as a non-governmental organization or a think tank, who are within six years of graduation from a graduate program at Brock or another post-secondary institution.

For more information, contact: Rachel Hirsch, Research Officer, rhirsch@brocku.ca or Cathy Majtenyi, Research Communications Officer, cmajtenyi@brocku.ca