Looking for York faculty who would be interested in the following project being organized under the banner of the Transborder Research University Network (TRUN) and would like to take part in a meeting at the University of Toronto on September 13th.
Project Description
As you may know, the Transborder Research University Network (TRUN), to date an administrative consortium of 13 universities from New York State, US and the Province of Ontario, Canada was established in 2007 http://TRUN.ca. The aim of TRUN is to expand and support cooperation among research universities along the borders of Ontario and New York State in the area of collaborative academic and research initiatives.
TRUN would like to organize a one-day meeting that would bring together interested faculty members seeking collaboration in possible areas such as fostering public policy dialogue through joint conferences, building a strong transborder connectivity among faculty and students (undergraduate and graduate) such as joint educational programs/courses, research internships and exchanges for students and collaborative research across the disciplines. In very simple terms the purpose of the meeting is to determine the interest and possibilities for developing cooperative academic activities that would foster and strengthen a network of students and faculty among these institutions learning and working together in these areas of priority.
The Great Lakes ecosystem and the conservation and management of accessible water is an area of priority and common interest to the region and where each institution has academic interest and capacity but where there have been few opportunities for joint cooperation. It would be timely for there to be an active university community engaged in this topic who has a vested interest in preserving our water generally and in particular the quality of the Great Lakes system.
The University of Toronto, Centre for the Environment is offering to host this first meeting and proposes the date and location of the meeting to be on Monday September 13th at the St. George campus (location TBC). The timing of the meeting will allow most participants to drive in and out the same day.
It is proposed that each TRUN and other interested universities (recommended by a TRUN member) select one to two faculty members, ideally one from policy and one from clean technology/water technology field, to attend this event.
One of the goals would be to discuss the potential for a fall workshop on Transboundary Water Management with the objective of profiling water issues, the policy debate and emerging research directions and academic priorities and identifying key activities and areas of cooperation that would foster a transborder network of students and faculty.
At this meeting, Dr. Murray Clamen, Secretary of the Canadian Section of the International Joint Commission (IJC) will join us to facilitate discussion and assist us in focusing our thoughts and ideas as to what the fall workshop could be.
A starting point of this network building and planning meeting would be to discuss the international, national and provincial/state interests and commitments to water protection and identify key gaps and opportunities in scientific and social innovation and where the participating universities could contribute to transborder capacity. This could then lead to a dialogue on possible areas of focus and what could be the framework of an agenda for a future conference/workshop and next steps.
Participants are to be responsible for their travel, accommodation and related costs and the University of Toronto will be the host for the day’s events.
