The grant, administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), is a response to the call for “Innovative Approaches to Research in the Pandemic Context”.

Our project is the natural progression of a nearly two-year effort to report on public health guideline uptake in Ontario, which used RIWI’s novel technology to collect reliable, broad-ranging, continuous data sets that were able to access populations often overlooked in more traditional survey responses.

An accompanying brief using our survey results was published through the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table in October 2021. The success of our initial Fields-RIWI collaboration has resulted in several additional projects that are running independently of the NFRF grant.

“I am delighted that we will be able to continue our work on capturing and measuring attitudes towards public health measures, this time on a global scale. This information will be valuable input to the epidemiological models being developed by many teams. As well, this is our first SSHRC grant, and I am especially pleased that the Fields Institute is now supported by all three councils,” says Dr. V. Kumar Murty, Director of the Fields Institute.

“Different disciplines working together offers new insights into what we think we know, and what we don’t,” adds Professor Neil Seeman, Senior Fellow, University of Toronto and Founder, RIWI. “I can’t imagine partnering with a group better positioned to derive meaningful insights from the data than the Fields Institute.”

The NFRF was launched in 2018 to fund interdisciplinary, high-risk/high-reward research led by Canadian researchers. Grants are awarded through Canada’s three federal research agencies: the SSHRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Successful applications are singled out for their potential to push boundaries and enhance Canada’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. Winning research projects are expected to build on the country’s reputation as an academic powerhouse and help buoy interest in our rapidly growing innovation sector, which recently saw Toronto named the fastest growing tech market in North America.

Our proposal also highlighted the Fields Institute’s commitment to supporting equity, diversity and inclusions initiatives in all facets of the project. This includes efforts to ensure significant diversity across various identity indicators and full support and integration of all team members, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

The work will take place over a year and will count on the different strengths both groups bring to the table.

For more information, please contact the Fields Communications team (

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