British Columbia researchers are working at the forefront of climate solutions, and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions is supporting that climate change innovation with more than $1.15 million in its latest round of funding opportunities. 

This fall, 14 research teams connected to PICS’ partner universities will receive funding to support multidisciplinary research and action. The funded research anticipates emerging climate challenges; catalyzes policy insights to help B.C. build a clean and competitive economy; and/or co-designs First Nations-led climate research supporting community climate priorities. 

“This latest round of funding awards showcases the leadership of researchers at our network of universities in developing innovative and effective climate solutions that align with First Nations priorities, public concerns, and policymaker needs,” says PICS Executive Director Ian Mauro. “PICS is helping to advance the incredible expertise and capacity in B.C. to address and co-develop solutions to the pressing challenges facing the province and the world.” 

The funding comes through three programs at PICS: Climate Foresight, Policy Spark, and the new World Weaving program.  

Climate change innovation in action 

From wildfire resilience and watershed restoration to clean technology adoption and Indigenous climate leadership, these projects are receiving support through three PICS funding streams: 

Climate Foresight:  

• Managing Sustainability Transitions in British Columbia: Analytical Tools, Governance Frameworks, and Transitions Management Practice, led by UVic’s Tamara Krawchenko, with Sean Markey from SFU. 

• Beneath the Fireline: social–ecological dialogues on groundwater, wildfire resilience and governance in a changing climate, led by UVic’s Tom Gleeson, with Tristan Pearce from the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and Paige Thurston from Living Lakes Canada 

• Understanding and Addressing Climate Disinformation in British Columbia, led by David Tindall from the University of British Columbia (UBC), with Katya Rhodes from UVic and Nicholas Scott from SFU. 

• When local disasters become regional crises: Strengthening climate resilience for rural mountain communities in British Columbia, led by UNBC’s Mark Groulx, with Tara Lynn Clapp from UNBC, and Brooklyn Rushton from Carleton University and The Resilience Institute (seed funding).  

Policy Spark:  

• Beyond Rebates: Capital Recycling Mechanisms for Clean Tech Adoption, led by Basma Majerbi from UVic. 

• Age-Friendly Decarbonization: Health Co-Benefits of Housing Retrofits, led by Atiya Mahmood with Mohammadjavad Nouri, both from SFU. 

• Characterizing community co-benefits of negative emissions technologies in B.C., led by UBC’s Terre Satterfield with Pieter Romer from Ocean Networks Canada. 

• Climate-Health Co-Benefits of Vehicle Electrification, led by SFU’s Vahid Hosseini.  

• Sea-to-Sky Passenger Rail: Quantifying Co-Benefits of Mode Shift in B.C., led by SFU’s Anthony Perl with Lee Haber from the Mountain Valley Institute. 

• Allocating Scarce Resources: Grid, Fuel, and Carbon in BC’s Critical Mineral Mines, led by Brad Griffin and Mark Jaccard, both from SFU 

World Weaving: 

• Git qṃsistá: Learning together to understand and revitalize herring ecosystems in a warming sea, led by the Kitasoo Xai’xais and working with Kyle Wilson and Natalie Ban from SFU, and Christina Service with the Kitasoo Xai’xais Stewardship Authority.  

• Wuikinuxv Clam Garden Restoration Project, led by the Wuikinuxv Nation and working with UVic’s Chris Darimont (Geography) and Wuikinuxv Nation’s land manager Calen May-Tobin. 

• Gitxsan Climate Storywork: Weaving Knowledge, Art, and Relationships with Land, led by the Gitxsan community and working with UVic’s Jenny Morgan (Social Work) and community researcher Jason Morgan-Gottschall.

• Restoring suuḥaa to haʔukmin: A Climate Adaptation and Watershed Rebuilding Initiative, led by the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and working with UVic’s Jaime Grimm (Biology) and Jessica Edwards with the Ha’oom Fisheries Society. 

• Operationalizing the “Kaska adaptive stewardship cycle” (KASC): Weaving Kaska knowledge and western science for informed climate-related decision-making and Kaska climate leadership, led by the Dena Keyah Institute and working with UVic’s Matt Murphy (Business) and researcher Julian Yates.  

• In addition, the project Clam Gardens and Crab Apples: Adapting to Change through the Revitalization of Ancestral Stewardship in Gitga’at Territory, led by Gitga’at First Nation and working with UBC’s Skye Augustine, Ts’msyen anthropologist Spencer Greening (La’goot) from the Gitga’at First Nation, and researcher Max Milner, will receive a $15,000 Relational Foundations grant under the World Weaving program.