Early Career Researcher Award (established 2021)
This annual award recognizes Trent University early career promising researchers and is designed to help accelerate early-stage career faculty in building a sustainable research program. The value of the award is $ 5,000 and will be awarded annually for up to two early career researchers in the form of a research grant.
The Call for Nominations for the Early Career Researcher Award is now open and the complete application is due by March 1.
Eligibility:
- Candidates must be within their first five years of a TUFA permanent appointment at Trent University (note: the Selection Committee will consider personal leave circumstances)
- Self‐nomination is acceptable
- Canada Research Chairs are not eligible for nomination
- Recipients of the award will not be eligible for future nomination for this award
For full details please see the Early Career Researcher Award Terms of Reference.
To complete a nomination, please access the Nomination Form.
2022 Early Career Researcher Awards
We are delighted to announce that the Early Career Researcher Award recipients in 2022, the inaugural year, are Dr. Karen Blair, Dr. Graham Raby, and Dr. Elizabeth Russell.
Recipient: Dr. Karen Blair, Psychology Department
Dr. Karen Blair arrived at Trent University during the first challenges of the pandemic as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Since July 2020, Prof. Blair has established cornerstone foundations of a promising academic and impressive research career. She has demonstrated an incredible ability to build a team of students, post-docs, and faculty collaborators to launch a vitally important and successful program of research focused on mental health, well-being, and relationships during the pandemic. Since coming to Trent, Dr. Blair has served as the Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator or collaborator on six (6) funded research grants and her research has resulted in nine (9) papers published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. Since beginning her research career, Dr. Blair has received an impressive 1,300 + citations to date. This track record of innovative and critically important research has established a path for Dr. Blair to become a forefront researcher on sexual and gender identities and stigma, prejudice, and discrimination, and the social determinants of health.
Recipient: Dr. Graham Raby, Biology Department
Dr. Graham Raby is currently 20 months into his appointment at Trent University as an Assistant Professor in the Biology department. Since arriving at Trent, Prof. Raby has established himself as one of the pre-eminent researchers on fish ecology. Not only has Prof. Raby earned success with funding requests, having secured approximately $700,000 in research funding from multiple national and bi-national sources, he has also published nine (9) papers while navigating the complexities of the COVID pandemic. Prof. Raby is currently leading a research team’s submission toward an NSERC Alliance Grant valued at $281,000 in direct research funding. This upcoming submission demonstrates Prof. Raby’s impressive ability in developing an extensive network of research collaborators. Combining his skills in securing funding, developing and publishing knowledge and creating an extensive network have all lead to Dr. Raby being described as the “complete package”.
Recipient: Dr. Elizabeth Russell, Psychology Department
Dr. Elizabeth Russell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology whose research is focused on the sustainability of rural age-friendly communities’ programs. Prof. Russell works in collaboration with communities in various Canadian provinces who have implemented age-friendly programs. More broadly, she conducts research on the teaching of the discipline of aging, and a variety of aging and health topics focused within rural communities. Since arriving at Trent in 2016, she has published eleven (11) peer-reviewed papers, received over $270,000 in Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator funding and was one of the recipients of the inaugural Trent University Research Impact Award. Most notably, however, is that Prof. Russell was recently unanimously appointed as the Director of the Trent Centre for Aging & Society due to the impact and leadership potential of her research in addition to her contributions to community-engagement, student mentorship and faculty collaboration.