A collaborative, Indigenous-led research initiative to re-envision chemical risk management in a time of environmental crisis has received $22 million in funding from the federal government’s New Frontiers in Research Fund.
Led by the Technoscience Research Unit (TRU) at the University of Toronto and in partnership with researchers and institutions in Canada and Aotearoa (New Zealand), the project — Transforming Chemical Risk Management with Indigenous Expertise — puts Indigenous experts in university and communities as leaders in designing the ways pollution risk is evaluated and managed.
The urgent need to reduce emissions of climate-changing gases and pollutants requires innovative approaches to chemical risk management. Forming sustainable environmental relationships for future generations is at the heart of Indigenous approaches to caring for land, waters, air and each other. The project brings Indigenous research methods to this challenge to profoundly transform chemical risk management in Indigenous community-based practice, university labs and classes, regulatory practices, and policy development.