A total of 47 Research Excellence Clusters led by researchers at UBC Vancouver are being supported in 2025/26.
Research Excellence Clusters are interdisciplinary networks of researchers addressing societal and cultural problems, and working together to solve challenges that transcend traditional boundaries associated with departments, institutions, and funding agencies.
Funding for clusters at UBC Vancouver is awarded through the Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters (GCRC).
Support for the research excellence clusters in 2025/26 includes:
- 23 new grants funded through the 2025/26 GCRC competition
- 19 clusters in the second year of GCRC funding awarded in 2024/25
- 5 transition grants for previously funded clusters no longer eligible to apply to GCRC competitions
2025/26 GCRC competition grant recipients
Our vision is to develop an interdisciplinary research agenda among clinical, social and epidemiologic scientists that will catalyze research, research training, practice and policy aimed at promoting physiologic birth. The long-term goal of our network will be to develop a Canadian Institute of Normal Birth Research.
Cluster Lead: Patti Janssen
Many patients have trouble getting health services when needed. Long waits in emergency rooms or closures in rural communities are examples. Doctors seeing patients over videoconferencing or using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help patients make health decisions are becoming popular “Digital Health” (DH) options, but are DH services really helpful and safe for patients? Will they help relieve overcrowding or increase doctors’ availability?
The AI and Technology-Enabled Care Collaboration Centre (ATECCC) is a group of researchers, government and community members, health professionals, and technology experts. ATECCC works together to discover how DH can be helpful to patients and healthcare.
Cluster Lead: Kendall Ho
The Autoimmune Biomedical Collaborative (ABC) strives to forge connections across research, clinical practice, and patient needs to identify commonalities across autoimmune diseases, develop potential therapeutic strategies and facilitate innovative solutions to global autoimmune disease health challenges. The cluster will create new multidisciplinary collaborations offering fresh ideas and foundational experiments in biomedical research to bridge with clinical researchers and patient experience to further translate the power of collaborative research efforts into novel therapeutics and preventative strategies.
Cluster Lead: Marc Horwitz
We propose "The Canadian English Word Centre" as the focal point for the study, monitoring and production of reference tools for Canadian English lexis, phraseology and semantics. After the devastation of the commercial dictionary industry at the beginning of the millennium, there is a growing research gap today. Our aim is to provide Canadian residents and anyone interested (e.g. students, academics, writers and editors) with a reliable suite of reference works that is Canadian (not American or British) and that reflects the multiplying uses of the many Englishes in Canada, informing non-discriminatory recommendations of an inclusive standard, rooted in decolonization.
Cluster Lead: Stefan Dollinger
Developing advanced materials is essential to enable future technological changes across many sectors: electronics, bio-technologies, and health. To achieve this, it is critical to characterize how the structure and chemistry of materials influence functional properties and performance. This cluster draws expertise from across distinct fields in UBC, with a shared mission of advancing and deploying materials characterization. Members of the cluster lead state-of-the-art instrument facilities, develop characterization techniques, and collaborate to deliver quantitative insights into materials processing and performance. By linking expertise and building community in the field of materials characterization, UBC is positioned to discover the materials of tomorrow.
Cluster Lead: Ben Britton
Cinema Thinks The World is a large-scale cluster that will bring together numerous scholars on and with film and other audiovisual media at UBC. It will offer up a series of scholarly and public-facing events, including in partnership with the Cinematheque. It aims to hold a symposium and a conference on its chief themes of de-westernising and decolonising film studies, including via the production of non-traditional academic outputs, specifically audiovisual work. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the cluster aims to work towards several successful SSHRC and other grant proposals.
Cluster Lead: William Brown
This emerging interdisciplinary cluster, of applied science, creative arts and humanities scholars, works on the complex problems of sustainability in textiles and clothing. The breadth of our research and creation informs our cluster name: Circular Textiles includes creative production and technologies using biodegradable materials or textile waste; Sustainable Fibre addresses fabric-making traditions, traditional ecological knowledge and regenerative food-and-fibre systems; and Slow Fashion aims to motivate changed consumption habits and reduce garment waste. Research methods include technical and creative experimentation, modeling, and cultural and historical research. Our annual public Slow Fashion Season events will inspire, inform, and exchange knowledge.
Cluster Lead: Germaine Koh
This Research Cluster (RC) is organized around research on identifying climate change disinformation (through both traditional social science methods, and newly emerging computational means), and developing strategies to counter obstruction of climate action.
A central goal of this initiative is to establish this research excellence cluster as a knowledge hub, and scholarly network, equipped to engage with the public, and help key communities address the challenge of climate disinformation and obstruction. In this context we will develop a network of scholars with complementary strength, and pursue research external funding from Tri-Council agencies, government, and private sources.
Cluster Lead: David Tindall
Despite experiencing inequitable impacts, many Indigenous people and communities have thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic by returning to traditional cultural practices and ways of being. Health research often ignores these strengths and misses opportunities to equip Indigenous communities for pandemics. The best way to prepare Indigenous communities for health emergencies like pandemics is to help them thrive in their daily lives. This means ensuring the resources and supports for Indigenous people are in place. Our Indigenous-led research cluster pursues this goal by investing in partnerships and networks with the Indigenous scholars and communities, which is guided by a community agenda.
Cluster Lead: Kimberly Huyser
The Centre for Asian Canadian Research Engagement (ACRE) cluster will respond to ongoing issues facing diverse Asian Canadian communities, particularly the pervasiveness of anti-Asian racism which became very public during the pandemic. As a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, staff, and community knowledge bearers, we want to better understand and engage with the changing demographics of Asian Canadian communities, while highlighting the differential impacts of anti-Asian racism on these communities. We will explore how Asian Canadian communities can be represented and represent themselves through new approaches to archival collection, collaboration, digital preservation, and impactful distribution of public education.
Cluster Lead: Henry Yu
The cluster will bring together UBC faculty members from four academic units at both UBC campuses (Art History, Visual Art & Theory, Anthropology, School of Music, Creative and Critical Studies), curators from UBC cultural units (Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology, UBCO Gallery, Indigenous Art Intensive), and students across units in the Faculty of Arts and beyond, as well as engage local, national, and international arts and cultural ecologies to collaborate on projects and programs related to curatorial studies and research.
Cluster Leads: Erin Silver & Melanie O'Brian
The Data4Nature cluster brings together expertise at the interface of ecology, data science, synthesis statistics and data governance to develop new methods and provide local to global leadership in the growing field of ecoinformatics. We will leverage the power of new technologies to detect change in species and ecosystems, and seek to integrate existing streams of ecological data into a province-wide observation network that respects Indigenous data sovereignty. Such large amounts of integrated data will enable us to work with multi-sectoral partners to co-develop models of ecological change for societal good.
Cluster Lead: Diane Srivastava
This cluster will focus on the urgent need for emergency department (ED) interventions to address the ongoing toxic drug crisis. Despite the role EDs play in the crisis—many overdose victims visit an ED before their death—there is limited evidence on how to engage high-risk individuals, prevent harm, and provide effective treatments. Yet, EDs lack the infrastructure, coordination, and resources to rapidly conduct research. We will create a provincial learning health system to foster collaboration between clinicians, researchers, decision-makers, and individuals with lived experience to overcome the barriers of siloed systems and create a culture of shared learning, accountability, and collaboration.
Cluster Lead: Corinne Hohl
This research cluster explores the complex meanings, responsibilities, and potentialities of being Indigenous and “out of place,” or living beyond one’s traditional ancestral lands. Drawing upon the field of trans-Indigenous methodologies as a means for co-creation of knowledge, Indigenous faculty who have recently arrived at UBC, recruited with the development of UBC’s commitment to UNDRIP and the creation of the ISP, will work together and with First Nations and Indigenous partners, including xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ and urban communities, to develop trans-Indigenous partnership, direct research potentials, and establish and meet responsibilities to our Nations and to each other.
Cluster Lead: Kristen Barnett
This cluster connects scholars from across Arts and Forestry whose research engages with landscapes in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our workshops, speaker series, and “multiplier” grants will centre the question of extractivism and its impact on Latin American societies, Indigenous Peoples, and the environment. As a returning cluster, we seek to solidify research relationships and target our activities to pull in SSHRC funding (at least $1 million), create a Centre for Latin American Studies at UBC, create Mitacs fellowships, and recruit postdoctoral researchers. Building on past success (2023-25) we will actively involve PhD students as researchers and workshop coordinators.
Cluster Lead: Benjamin Bryce
We will develop a community of practice bringing together diverse faculty from Science, Applied Science, Architecture, and Land and Food Systems to explore development of living hybrid materials made from synthetic microbial communities including microalgae and fungi, with applications related to sustainable construction, waste treatment, and food security. These materials will enable the creation of carbon positive value cycles across industrial sectors including manufacturing and agriculture and provide a transdisciplinary research, teaching, and training ecosystem at the interface of microbial ecology, biological engineering, and sustainability science.
Cluster Lead: Steven Hallam
We seek to trace, affirm, nourish and expand connections between UBC and the Pacific Islands. Our network has three purposes: to identify and bring together researchers at UBC whose heritage and/ or work is connected to the Pacific region; to gain better understanding of Pacific presence in UBC/ Vancouver/ BC (including Pacific presence in museum collections); and to actively participate in broader conversations about the Pacific especially in Vancouver, BC, and the longer west coast. Underpinning all activities is an awareness of the specific place (Musqueam) from which we look towards the vast Pacific Islands region.
Cluster Lead: Alice Te Punga Somerville & Mitiana Arbon
Our vision is to develop an interdisciplinary research cluster among engineering, science, and social science that will catalyze training, industry practice and policy aimed at Canada’s shipbuilding, maritime, ocean resource stewardship and coastal sustainability. Our ultimate goal is to build a world-class Pacific Rim Institute for Sustainable Marine Systems.
Cluster Lead: Rajeev Jaiman
PREVENT-AMR is an inter-disciplinary research cluster with the ultimate goal of providing a research framework to address the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through prevention. Our cluster integrates human, animal, and environmental perspectives, and considers this issue from the perspectives of health, economics and climate change. Our cluster emphasizes cutting-edge research, partnerships, and education to mitigate the spread of resistant pathogens, safeguard public health, and promote sustainable ecosystems. Grounded in equity, diversity, and inclusivity principles, PREVENT-AMR aims to advance high impact solutions while training the next generation of leaders in AMR and One Health research.
Cluster Lead: Manish Sadarangani
Streets provide the connective tissue for cities, providing mobility and access, distributing goods and utilities, and opportunities for social and civic interaction. Rethinking the Right-of-Way (ReROW) is focused on innovation in the design and management of streets, sidewalks, alleys, and other public spaces that lead to better social, health, and sustainable outcomes. With respect to the ROW, the cluster will focus on three research themes and the connections between them:
- mobility and access;
- energy and the environment;
- health and wellbeing.
Cluster Lead: Kelly Clifton
Roots for Indigenous Partnered Research aims to strengthen collaborations between researchers and Indigenous communities, collectives, and organizations (ICCOs) by increasing the capacity of UBC and the broader research community to partner in a good way. The cluster focuses on integrating Indigenous values, methodologies, and ways of knowing into academic health research, addressing the challenges Indigenous and allied scholars face in a colonial system. Through regular events, the cluster will foster community, share knowledge, and highlight Indigenous-led health research and partnership opportunities, all while prioritizing reciprocal, relational, and culturally safe practices.
Cluster Lead: Martin Guhn
The Smart Infrastructure and Construction Research Cluster (SICRC) is dedicated to developing cutting-edge structural and construction technologies, and creating efficient and cost-effective solutions for civil infrastructure. This multidisciplinary research cluster consists of expertise from material and structural engineering, robotics, computer science, construction management and infrastructure planning from both UBCV and UBCO campuses, in collaboration with leading industry partners and international experts, to address multiple challenging issues including the significant housing crisis, labor shortage, and global warming effects in North America and worldwide.
Cluster Lead: Tony Yang
Overdose is now the leading cause of death for youth in British Columbia, and of increasing concern nationally and internationally.
Our cluster unites an interdisciplinary team of world-leading experts dedicated to overdose prevention. Guided by principles of community trust and meaningful engagement, we collaborate closely with Youth and Family Advisory Councils, as well as Indigenous Elders and Cultural Facilitators, ensuring our work is informed by lived experiences and cultural wisdom. We work together, and create new evidence and innovative knowledge products towards our mission of ending youth overdose deaths.
Cluster Lead: Matthew Carwana
2024/25 competition grant recipients (second year of term)
The collaborative “Advancing Multifunctional Dental Biomaterials” (AMDB) Research Excellence Cluster aims to leverage impactful research to prevent, mitigate and repair the effects of highly prevalent oral diseases through the development and enhancement of innovative dental biomaterials, while addressing oral health inequity and accessibility. Our mission also encompasses sharing existing knowledge, fostering learning, and providing insights into ongoing research for dental professionals, knowledge users, and the general public.
Cluster Lead: Adriana Manso
The BC Eating Disorders Research Excellence Cluster brings together clinicians, researchers, and community partners in a multi-disciplinary network to facilitate research and knowledge translation relating to eating disorders across the lifespan. Cluster activities include engagement in provincial and national knowledge mobilization initiatives, connecting trainees with mentorship opportunities, and leading a team project on education and support for the eating disorders workforce.
Cluster Lead: Jennifer Coelho
Critical Image Forum (CIF) is an interdisciplinary research cluster and public humanities project at UBC focusing on issues related to photography and expanded documentary practice. The CIF proceeds from the understanding that photographs are by their nature defiant of disciplinary boundaries: they are used to shape science, medicine, community memory, political awareness, the arts, geography, and social realities. Thus it works to connect academic research, photographic practice, and community work from across disciplines to propose how we can critically “read” photographic images. We support research in social and racial justice, visual art and cultural theory, political histories and decolonial methodologies.
Cluster Co-leads: Althea Thauberger & Kelly McCormick
How do we manage landscapes jointly for wildlife and people? Urbanization and agricultural expansion threaten biodiversity through habitat destruction. However, communities benefit from proximity to nature: urban-dwellers gain recreation and health benefits, while farmers depends on species like pollinators. Promoting biodiversity in populous regions such as Metro Vancouver can help secure these benefits, but may also enhance encounters and conflicts between people and wildlife. This research cluster will tackle these complex trade-offs through partner-based research with diverse stakeholders and key decision-makers, aimed at designing inclusive and effective conservation solutions to benefit people and nature alike.
Cluster Lead: Claire Kremen
Our research cluster will bring together First Nation and local communities, archive, museum and repository representatives, practicing archaeologists, heritage management officers, Indigenous/First Nations scholars and allies across BC, the Americas and beyond to re-imagine the future of data and cultural heritage curation locally and globally and develop solutions for change. Our cluster will address critical issues facing cultural heritage repositories via an ethos of practice guided by Indigenous and other descent community perspectives and moves toward data and cultural heritage sovereignty for First Nations and local communities.
Cluster Lead: Camilla Speller
The proposed research group seeks to create an interdisciplinary platform for scholars working on anticolonialism and global history to explore the meaning of global political theory further and theorize the ways in which land and sea have bridged the anti-colonial world in the past as well as explore the promises - and limits - of anticolonialism as a normative resource for the the future global age. The ultimate goal is to collectively advance the agenda of creating a global framework for studying anticolonial thought and to create a Center for the Study of Global Political Thought at UBC.
Cluster Lead: Barbara Arneil
Climate Justice Partnerships empowers UBC faculty, staff, and students to collectively support climate justice. We support community-led climate action by connecting the UBC community to the direct research needs of community partners while ensuring that our research is ethical, actionable, and accountable. We facilitate just and respectful relationships with community organizations, movements, First Nations, and other partners that enable us to produce politically impactful, groundbreaking research on climate justice.
Cluster Lead: Naomi Klein
DIBS' mission is to improve outcomes across major societal and planetary challenges by improving our understanding of decision-making, encouraging long-term behaviour change, and working together toward an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable future. DIBS has several goals, including: (1) conducting cutting-edge behavioural science research; (2) working with our partners in government, industry, and beyond to apply insights and methods from behavioural research to real-world challenges; (3) helping people develop their applied behavioural science knowledge and skills; and (4) growing and supporting the network of behavioural science experts and enthusiasts.
Cluster Lead: Jiaying Zhao
The UBC Disaster Resilience Research Network intends to build transdisciplinary connections and identify shared research goals to inform disaster risk reduction policy and decision making at community and governance levels. The cluster aims to advance multi-hazard assessment and mitigation in support of an inclusive and equitable development of just disaster risk management, with a focus on BC informed by international perspectives.
Cluster Co-leads: Carlos Molina Hutt & Sara Shneiderman
The Future Minerals Initiative is an interdisciplinary research cluster which brings together academic researchers, Indigenous community leaders, and industry professionals to reimagine the global mineral resource sector. FMI uniquely integrates academic expertise in earth sciences, engineering, law, economics and public policy together with Indigenous Knowledge, to drive technical innovation in mineral exploration and mining, while reimagining the environmental, social and human rights dimensions of mineral resources in the context of Indigenous sovereignty. We aim to position British Columbia as the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the mineral resource sector, working to create the world’s most technologically advanced and socially responsible mining jurisdiction.
Cluster Lead: Nadja Kunz
The cluster accelerates interdisciplinary research to find real-world solutions that will be readily adopted by consumers, government and business key for our sustainable future. The research includes in the innovation of new packaging materials (intelligent, biodegradable, self-healing, sustainable sourced and processed), biosensors and eco-friendly barrier coatings for packaging applications. It includes research related to safety and risk assessment, consumer attitudes/behaviour, supply chain implications and lifecycle assessment for developing packaging systems. Key will be to mobilize research outputs by engaging stakeholders from material providers to consumers to inform and shape regulatory policies, business and community/consumer practices.
Cluster Lead: Anubhav Pratap-Singh
We aim to implement interdisciplinary, inclusive, and collaborative approaches into current research practices impacting Indigenous people. In addition, we seek to strengthen community engagement based on reciprocal and respectful relations, bring Indigenous people's voices and knowledge into research, advance Indigenous research sovereignty and transform theory, methodology, and practice of academic research.
Cluster Lead: Eduardo Jovel
There is an urgent unmet clinical need for more effective interventions for substance use/mental health disorders. The Multidisciplinary Alliance for Translational Research and Innovation in Neuropsychiatry (MATRIX-N) seeks to bridge gaps between neuroscience/psychiatry research, clinical practice and patient needs to facilitate innovative solutions to local/global challenges related to the overdose crisis, high-risk substance use, concurrent disorders, and pain. Two promising strategies to address research gaps are the integration of foundational and clinical research, and concept of ‘reverse translation’, which prioritizes insights from clinicians, front-line health workers, and patients in inspiring translational research with potential for immediate and significant clinical impact.
Cluster Lead: Anthony Phillips
The MUSIC (MUsic and Science Interdisciplinary Collaboration) Research Cluster will develop collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects, educational opportunities, and community outreach projects in music cognition. Research projects of interest to the members include: the perception and cognition of music and other auditory input; music and language processing and acquisition; effects of music in clinical settings for treatment of psychiatric disorders, neurodivergences, and neurodegenerative diseases; and music learning and dyslexia. Cluster activities will include Workshops offering interdisciplinary education, a Speaker Series welcoming prominent researchers in music cognition, and Outreach events connecting the work of the research cluster to the community.
Cluster Lead: Leigh Van Handel
Pop Culture Catalysts: Popular Media and Social Change explores how popular culture reflects social and political change and can instigate social change. Popular culture is the most prevalent and powerful form of cultural production in our lives; yet, it remains on the fringes of academic inquiry, where little understanding exists about the value of popular culture in research, teaching, and knowledge mobilization. This Research Cluster will therefore serve as an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary hub for the evaluation of popular media and its impacts, seeking to identify the role of popular culture in illuminating and catalyzing social and political change.
Cluster Lead: Elizabeth Nijdam
Male suicide rates are high and there are predictions that post COVID-19 transitions will increase men's suicide risk. The reducing male suicide (RMS) research cluster comprises world leading researchers in men's mental health, and together this group works to develop, implement and evaluate upstream suicide prevention programs across three themes by: 1) Addressing men’s mental health inequities 2) Guiding the practices of men to seek, and practitioners who provide, mental health care 3) Assisting men to build equitable intimate partner relationships and social connections The RMS work positions UBC as a collaborative world leader for reducing male suicide.
Cluster Lead: John Oliffe
38,000 Canadians suffer sudden cardiac arrests (SCA) each year. Only 5-7% return home. The BC Resuscitation Research Collaborative (BC RESURECT) aims to improve survival in BC. Our efforts are far reaching through our national CanSAVE research group developing recognition technology, improving rapid community response, and understanding how to minimize the effects of SCA on brain function and develop survivor-led quality of life standards of care.
Cluster Lead: James Christenson
Families of children with medical complexity experience physical, social, and economic exclusion. Medical complexity is characterized by the presence of complex, chronic conditions requiring specialized care, substantial health needs, functional dependence and/or limitations, and frequent healthcare usage. Our cluster will advance knowledge, clinical programs and policy to support these families through a community-led and comprehensive research program and knowledge exchange activities.
Cluster Lead: Jennifer Baumbusch
TrustML facilitates the development of trustworthy machine-learning-based systems: systems that are reliable, secure, explainable, and ethical. The cluster brings together a remarkable set of experts from computer science and engineering, law, business and ethics, and relevant application domains such as finance, manufacturing, education, and medicine. It (a) examines trust-related challenges in these critical domains, (b) helps develop and adopt guidelines for new AI policies, and (c) investigates solutions for building trustworthy systems that professionals and the general public can safely adopt.
Cluster Lead: Julia Rubin
Transition grant recipients
Transition grants are for previously funded clusters no longer eligible to apply to GCRC competitions following 2024 program changes.
Sepsis occurs when an infection results in vital organ damage, and can result in death or disability. Sepsis has huge clinical, social, economic, and political impacts. Thus reducing the impact of sepsis cannot be achieved without cross-cutting, interdisciplinary collaborations. Action on Sepsis fosters diverse and inclusive partnerships across biology, medicine, population and public health, and policy to effectively prevent, diagnose, and manage the deadly condition of sepsis. We aim to create innovative, targeted interventions that will minimize death and disability and improve outcomes for people with sepsis in BC and across the globe.
Cluster Lead: Mark Ansermino
BCREGMED is a multi-disciplinary research initiative comprised of world-class scientists, clinicians, and industry partners. Since our inception, we have catalyzed unique collaborations and opportunities for our community. We are dedicated to identifying and removing barriers to regenerative medicine, and accelerating innovative research towards translational outcomes.
Cluster Lead: Fabio Rossi
The UBC Centre for Migration Studies promotes collaborative, interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and transformative research that advances our understanding of the causes, consequences, and experiences of human mobility, both within and across borders. As a community of scholars and practitioners, we work together to advance and decolonize the study and understanding of migration and belonging and to facilitate publicly engaged dialogue that fosters inclusive and just communities.
Cluster Lead: Antje Ellermann
The Dynamic Brain Circuits in Health and Disease cluster seeks mechanistic insight into normal and dysfunctional brain circuits across nervous system illnesses and injuries. We accelerate these insights by strengthening the collaborative research environment through networks of peer tutors that support local and international workshops and the development of new course material. Emerging neuroscience tools include expanded tissue microscopy and fully synthetic model brains and organisms that help inform and guide therapeutics. Through these efforts all faculty, staff, and trainees gain access to physical infrastructure and technology training in addressing questions around brain circuit function that embrace data-driven methodologies.
Cluster Lead: Tim Murphy
The Transformative Health and Justice Research Cluster is a peer-led, interdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral research network catalyzing equity-oriented studies at the interface of health and justice. We apply strength-based research approaches for decolonizing, anti-stigmatizing, and culturally safe engagement, policy development, and community advocacy for and with people who are impacted by the criminal legal system.
Cluster Lead: Helen Brown
