University of Lethbridge researchers earn Digital Research Alliance grants
Four University of Lethbridge scholars have received $35,000 from the Digital Research Alliance (DRI) of Canada for projects advancing equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA) in digital research infrastructure. The funding, announced earlier this year, is part of $2.87 million awarded to EDIA Champions across the country.
“To have four scholars from ULethbridge receive these grants is an indication of the excellence in research, and it is worth celebrating,” says Martha Mathurin-Moe, vice-provost of Accessibility, Belonging and Community. “Investing in this type of research is crucial for creating an inclusive, innovative and diverse research ecosystem where students are able to connect deeply, learn from multiple perspectives and address critical research problems. These research projects will continue to strengthen and broaden the research landscape, but also create meaningful opportunities for all our diverse students to contribute their unique perspectives and talents.”
“Digital research infrastructure is transforming the way we conduct and share scholarly work,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president of research. “By leveraging digital tools and resources, these researchers can overcome traditional barriers, collaborate more effectively and drive innovation across disciplines. Not only did we see strong interest in this inaugural call for proposals, our success rate reinforces the quality of our research environment.”
Toyin Aladejebi, a PhD student in Population Studies in Health, is a medical demographer. While working in the corporate world, Aladejebi discovered a passion for improving life for others and supporting women’s success in the workplace. Her EDIA project focuses on empowering graduate women researchers to build networks that enable them to find and share data and collaborate with other researchers in Canada and around the world.
“My research project aims to close the gender gap in access to data among researchers in the academic community in Lethbridge,” says Aladejebi. “This is being achieved through training and mentoring graduate women researchers at ULethbridge about DRI tools and resources available for data management and research computing, thus enhancing their skills in accessing, analyzing and sharing meaningful data.”
Chiedozie Alumona is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health Sciences studying under Dr. Olu Awosoga. Alumona’s project aims to train racialized scholars in the Faculty of Health Science in using digital research infrastructure. His goal is to empower scholars to demonstrate advanced skills for conducting cutting-edge research. Following a pre-training survey, Alumona will organize training sessions, administer a post-training survey and analyze the project’s impact.
“Being a DRI EDIA Champion means actively advocating and promoting access to digital research infrastructure among equity-seeking groups, particularly racialized scholars,” says Alumona. “They may not know about the available DRI tools or how these tools could enhance their research, which can hinder their academic progress.”
Frank Onuh, a PhD student, conducts research at the intersection of information disorder, decoloniality and artificial intelligence (AI). His doctoral research centres on decolonizing information verification practices in Africa to leverage the insights and findings to develop appropriate intelligent systems for automated fact checking that capture and represent the African experience.
“Being a DRI EDIA Champion means a lot to me,” says Onuh. “I want to support underrepresented academics, in this case Black scholars, in achieving equitable access to resources and fostering inclusive research practices that amplify diverse contributions within the scholarly community.”
Dr. Nathan Woods, a postdoctoral fellow in the Humanities Innovation Lab, is an organizational anthropologist and information scientist who addresses the human dimensions of complex social, environmental and technical problems. His EDIA project is a needs assessment study that looks at barriers and opportunities for humanities researchers to work with the Canadian digital research infrastructure.
“This award gives me an opportunity to conduct work that advances the Canadian digital research infrastructure in ways that promote its use among groups that may feel it is not for them,” says Woods. “This includes finding pathways to translate disciplinary and community perspectives into terms that infrastructure designers might appreciate.”