Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program

Supporting collaboration and communication to further research, scholarship, and creative practice for the public good.

What is the Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program?

The Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program is part of the core offerings of the Centre for Graduate Professional Development. Public impact scholarship, through the lens of higher education, is inquiry that makes meaningful contributions to the public. Public impact spans science and technological innovation, as well as cultural innovation, with the goal of social benefit. This covers all academic disciplines. With that in mind, fellows from PhDs for Public Impact program will focus on engaging the public through a scholarly agenda. This could involve a range of activities, from describing their work in a public forum to partnering with a school, community organization, or cultural institution in an ongoing two-way exchange of knowledge and practices.

Meet the 2023-24 Fellows

Funding

Each fellow will be awarded $12,500 for the year (a $10,000 fellowship to be used as a top up to their stipend and $2,500 towards professional development and project expenses) to do innovative and impactful research, scholarship, and creative practice.

Programming

Fellows will participate in a broader program of specialized skills training in public scholarship, as well as networking opportunities.

Learn more and apply

Defining Public Impact

The key to defining public impact is explaining the societal benefit and relevance of the work to a general audience. Please note the categories and examples below are for illustrative purposes and not meant to be exhaustive; additionally, many research projects may cover multiple categories:

Social and Cultural Innovation — work that positively influences culture and society (e.g., art, literature, social movements, understanding civilizations)
Reconciliation and Social Inclusion — work that forwards our goals of repair with Indigenous communities and other disadvantaged groups (e.g., facilitating goals of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, creating systems of anti-oppression and anti-racism)
Community-Engaged — work that addresses important questions that are of relevance to and done in partnership with our communities (e.g., working with a non-profit, working with newcomer groups)
Global Scholarship — work that has the potential to have impact beyond our local communities or brings diverse global work to our local setting (e.g., ethnography of Indigenous communities across the globe, multi-site studies)
Social Responsiveness — work that is critical to the key questions of today (e.g., mental health, racial disparities, climate change, COVID-19 research)
Technological Innovation — work that harnesses technology to transform our systems (e.g., artificial intelligence, clinical devices)
Fundamental Basic Discovery — work that helps us understand basic elements of our world better (e.g., neuroscientific discovery, theoretical physics and mathematics)
Transdisciplinary / Interdisciplinary — work that breaks down disciplinary boundaries to better address questions (e.g., clinical computational neuroscience, mixed methods research designs)
Public Policy — work that influences social, economic, local and global policies to transform different sectors of society (e.g., agricultural policy, foreign policy, law, government relations)
Health Care Innovation — work that positively influences the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities (e.g., mental health interventions, new biomarkers for illness, neuroscience of illnesses, healthcare systems evaluation)

A public scholar engages with empathy, responsibility, and compassion with their research and research participants in the interest of challenging traditional ways of scholarship.

Roxana Escobar Nanez

Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellow (2022–23)

Program Goals

To broaden graduate education in order to:

Support accessible pathways between the university and the public that prepare doctoral students for a variety of careers.

Support partnerships so that research, scholarship, and creative practice can better serve the needs of the public.

Make scholarship more accessible to the public to increase its impact.

Program Learning Objectives

1. Conduct more impactful research, scholarship, and / or creative work;
2. Effectively communicate research to a general audience, including across the disciplines and the public;
3. Specifically articulate the impact of your research for a general audience;
4. Create more inclusive scholars that appreciate the diversity of perspectives regarding research methods and disciplines;
5. Explore and experiment with different mediums for public dissemination (e.g., blogs, podcasts, tweets);
6. Collaborate with a diverse group of colleagues;
7. Build your professional network;
8. Enhance civic engagement through focus on the public good; and
9. Enhance graduate student experience and wellbeing.

Fellow Responsibilities

Fellows are expected to:

Work on a finite one-year deliverable on their research, scholarship, or creative product (typically dissertation)

Students will work on their public impact research, scholarship, or creative practice with a one-year deliverable to be presented at an annual showcase.

Attend a public scholarship workshop

This introductory single-session workshop is designed to cover the basics of creating and sharing impactful scholarly work with the public.

Attend monthly fellows’ meetings

These monthly sessions include a mix of curricula, student-interest-driven programming, networking with and mentorship from alumni with a public scholarship profile, and meetings to allow fellows to share their own work with each other.

Engage in one or more forms of public communication

This could include developing a Twitter presence; creating a blog; writing a guest blog post; publishing an op-ed; creating a link with an organization outside the university, creating a YouTube series; hosting a podcast; giving a public lecture; or coordinating a Café Scientific. The fellow would choose their form of communication based on their interests and scholarship.

Participate in an annual showcase event

This event will showcase the fellows’ work, process, outcomes, experiences, and/or learnings through various modalities, which might include presentations, videos, dance performances, visual arts displays, storytelling, etc.

Participate in program enhancement

Fellows will be asked to participate in program development and quality assurance, including sharing their outcomes post-program and post-graduation.

Promote Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program

Fellows will credit the fellowship as appropriate for any work completed in the year related to their project (e.g., in acknowledgements, blogs, etc).

Attend Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program activities

Fellows are expected to attend all activities and specifically 75% of the activities in person to build a cohort and community.

Why should I apply?

Engagement in this program will offer students a transformative experience. Fellows will gain:

New opportunities for connection to the public and other fellows

“I’m looking forward to being part of a community of fellows who are leading the way in making an impact through creative expression, community advocacy, policy change, and more.“
Madison Giles, 2022-23 Connaught Public Impact Fellow

“Learning from and working with the cohort gives me a unique understanding of where the field is moving in a variety of disciplines.”
Peter Serles, 2022-23 Connaught Public Impact Fellow

Intellectual stimulation that comes from discussing a variety of topics from a variety of perspectives

A sense of purpose from translating inquiry to have a greater impact

“At this stage in my academic career, I have realized that the greater impact of research work comes from disseminating scientific information to the general public. Going forward, I can’t imagine not doing this sort of profoundly satisfying and meaningful work.“
Anam Shahil Feroz, 2022-23 Connaught Public Impact Fellow

Ready to apply?

Step 1Attend an information session
Step 2Review application requirements
Step 3Submit your application
Step 4Await results

Want to learn more about the Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship Program? Attend the virtual information session on December 13, 2023 from 3-4pm to learn more about the program.

Register to attend the Connaught PhDs for Public Impact info session

Get familiar with what you need to submit in your PhDs for Public Impact fellowship application.

Review the application requirements

Review Frequently Asked Questions

Submit your application by March 1, 2023.

Application form

Fellows will be announced in Spring of 2023. In the mean time…

Meet our 2022–2023 Fellows