Inaugural international seed funding initiative successfully advances global research collaborations

TORONTO, April 11, 2025 – The inaugural funding call of the Global Research Excellence (GRE) Fund has concluded with York providing over $225,000 to support international research collaboration.

Launched in the spring of 2024, the GRE Fund is a key initiative in support of Engaging the World: York University’s Internationalization and Global Engagement Strategy, which prioritizes deepening international research collaborations and maximizing global research impact.

Twenty-two projects across eight York Faculties and a number of York Organized Research Units (ORUs) have so far been funded. They have received grants of up to $30,000, involving over thirty York faculty and dozens of collaborators from around the world. Projects are deepening international research into sustainable development, climate change adaptation and mitigation, Indigenous pedagogy, AI, disease modelling, critical minerals, LGBTQ+ rights, water sciences, urban infrastructure, migration and autonomous systems.

Attendees of the international symposium hosted at IIT Palakkad

GRE-funded collaborations are already advancing York’s global reach. One project has seen Faculty of Health professors Christo El Morr and Vijay Mago organize an international symposium in March 2025 titled “Shaping the AI Landscape: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Technology, Society and the Future of Marginalized Communities” in partnership with and hosted at IIT Palakkad. Bringing together philosophers, social scientists, and AI researchers, including those from many other leading Indian institutions like IIT Bombay and IISc Bangalore, the symposium was a tremendous success. It generated insights into the social impacts of AI and great potential for further collaboration.

Another notable international research collaboration is with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in astrophysics. Supported by GRE and considerable external funding, Faculty of Science Prof. Rahul Kannan and his MIT collaborator jointly recruited a Postdoctoral fellow from New York University.

More than half of the York faculty members engaged are early-career or mid-career researchers.

“Supporting our emerging research leaders is vital to the long-term success of the institution’s research enterprise,” states Vice President of Research and Innovation Amir Asif. “GRE aligns with York University’s Internationalization and Global Engagement Strategy by fostering investigator-driven research internationalization. This approach leverages our faculty’s expertise, collaborations, and global networks to address pressing global challenges. GRE empowers our investigators to take strategic risks in establishing new or strengthening current partnerships by addressing funding gaps at various stages.”

GRE is supporting projects in 22 countries, with 13 projects engaging Global South or global Indigenous partners. GRE funding is being leveraged to support everything from exploratory discussions and workshops with new partners to grant proposal development and joint HQP training. A key goal of the GRE Fund is to ensure that we facilitate tangible outcomes within a two-year time horizon and partnerships with leading international collaborators. GRE-supported projects have applied for over $16 million in Canadian and international funding opportunities, with nearly $500,000 in external funding already invested back into the collaborations. GRE projects have facilitated collaborations with top-ranked universities, United Nations agencies, NGOs, media, and arts & cultural organizations in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

“Initiatives like GRE signal York’s global aspirations and vision to partners, peers, governments, and funding bodies that York is committed to supporting collaborations that advance cutting edge and transformational research” says Vinitha Gengatharan, Assistant Vice-President, Global Engagement & Partnerships. “We hope to follow up on GRE’s inaugural success to deepen research ties and build on York’s global reputation by launching the next iteration of GRE in 2025. I greatly appreciate the Associate Vice-Presidents for Research’s efforts to adjudicate and guide the GRE initiative to early success. I thank our faculty community, ADRs, research services teams, and international partners for their invaluable input in developing the GRE fund.”

GRE is designed and implemented by the Global Strategic Initiatives team, a cross-portfolio unit within York International that works closely with the Office of the VP Research and Innovation and the Office of the President to advance the Global Engagement Strategy’s research internationalization and reputation priorities. To learn more about the ground-breaking work being supported by the GRE Fund, click here.

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