An interdisciplinary group of Carleton University researchers has received $1,100,000 from the Foundations for Innovation Program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to manage and co-ordinate calls for gender inclusive technological design in science, technology, engineering, the arts and math (STEAM) projects in low- and middle income countries (LMIC).
Carleton, in collaboration with multidisciplinary experts in Canada and in LMICs, will co-ordinate and manage a call for case studies and prototypes. The project seeks to expand and enhance the community of experts and innovators in gendered innovation, particularly in low- and middle-income countries; develop gendered case studies and design projects; and make gendered challenges in the design of technologies more visible to researchers, designers and innovators.
It will disburse up to 30 small grants and support both face-to-face and virtual capacity building activities. Outputs will include up to 20 case studies and 10 design prototypes, and up to 60 trained graduate students, publications and a public science portal of virtual/online exhibits. Uniquely structured to foster mutual learning, the project aims to achieve long-lasting partnerships among institutions of higher learning in LMICs and Canada.
The project will also curate a Public Science portal of virtual exhibits documenting and disseminating knowledge of the project at its various stages, as well as showcasing the prototype designs, aiming to contribute to a growing body of research dedicated to “gendered innovation.”
Londa Schiebinger, historian of science and technology at Stanford University (visit Stanford’s Gendered Innovations site), coined the term in 2005 and defines it as “transformations in the personnel, cultures and context of science and engineering brought about by efforts to remove gender bias from these fields.”
Primarily the project’s aim is to extend the application, scope and international reach of gendered innovation research through working alongside and contributing to mutual capacity building and learning with innovators, researchers and communities located in LMICs.
The project will be led by an interdisciplinary team, with two co-principal Investigators, Bjarki Hallgrimsson, director of the School of Industrial Design in the Faculty of Engineering and Design, and Dominique Marshall, chair of the Department of History in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Project co-ordination will be managed by Chiara Del Gaudio (School of Industrial Design) and Beth A Robertson (History), while being facilitated by Heloise Emdon (Carleton International).
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