Lakehead University signs agreement to increase student mobility with Latin America

Dr. Andrew Dean, Lakehead's Vice-President, Research and Innovation, signed the funding agreement on Friday, March 1 on behalf of the CALAREO Consortium while Christine Macdonald, Mitac's Director, Business Development and Team Lead, looks on.

March 1, 2019 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

Lakehead University has signed a funding agreement that will increase student mobility between Canada and countries in Latin America.

The funding agreement, which is for three years, creates a special Mitacs Globalink Research Award for members of the Canada and Latin America Research & Exchange Opportunities (CALAREO) Consortium.

CALAREO consists of Lakehead University, Vancouver Island University, University of Lethbridge, Carleton University, École de technologie supérieure, and Memorial University of Newfoundland. The CALAREO Secretariat is hosted at Lakehead University, who signed the agreement on behalf of the consortium.

The Mitacs-CALAREO Globalink Research Award program will fund short-term research projects for advanced undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students, as well as post-doctoral fellows, lasting three to six months.

Under the agreement, up to 25 Canadian students per year will receive $6,000 for a research internship in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, or Mexico. As many as 20 students per year from CALAREO partner countries will also receive $6,000 for a research internship at one of the universities listed above.

The agreement represents a funding commitment of $810,000 for student research over three years.

“Lakehead University is very pleased to be signing this agreement for internship funding with Mitacs on behalf of the CALAREO Consortium,” said Dr. Andrew Dean, Lakehead University’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation.

“The Globalink Research award program is a highly innovative program at Mitacs and provides excellent opportunities for students to expand their horizons through exciting international research opportunities. Having a dedicated number of awards for the CALAREO institutions will greatly increase our opportunities for exchange with research institutions in Latin America,” he added.

“The CALAREO Consortium creates opportunity for research exchange between six Canadian universities and several Latin American countries,” said Dr. Alejandro Adem, Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, Mitacs.

“Within this agreement, Mitacs’s Globalink program enables bilateral research exchange and student mobility with unique, global research networks. As Mitacs celebrates its 20th anniversary, I am very proud of the development of this new innovation ecosystem,” Adem added.

“We are excited by the possibilities for research partnerships that the signing of the funding agreement brings and look forward to working through the detail as individual arrangements proceed,” said Dr. Neil Bose, Vice-President, Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland, a member of CALAREO.

“Carleton University has been a part of CALAREO since its inception and we are very excited by this new development,” said Dr. Karen Schwartz, Interim Associate Vice-President, Research and International, and International Liaison Officer at Carleton University, a member of CALAREO.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8177 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

The Canada and Latin America Research & Exchange Opportunities (CALAREO) Consortium was formed in 2018, to support faculty and student mobility with Latin America, including exchange programs, scholarships and research collaboration. Visit calareo.ca.

Mitacs is a national, not-for-profit organization that has designed and delivered research and training programs in Canada for 20 years. Working with 60 universities, 4,000 companies, and both federal and provincial governments, we build partnerships that support industrial and social innovation in Canada. Visit mitacs.ca

Lakehead University has approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and 2,000 faculty and staff in 10 faculties at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead is a fully comprehensive university: home to Ontario’s newest Faculty of Law in 44 years, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and faculties of Engineering, Business Administration, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Social Sciences & Humanities, Science & Environmental Studies, Natural Resources Management, Education, and Graduate Studies. Maclean’s 2019 University Rankings place Lakehead University among Canada's Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities and in 2018 Research Infosource named Lakehead Research University of the Year in its category for the fourth consecutive year. Visit lakeheadu.ca.