LFS Today Oct 5, 2022

News

Random Acts of Recognition

Congratulations to Thilini Leitan (Student Engagement Officer), Rob Kim (Career Strategist) and Niki Glenning (Alumni Relations Manager) on the launch of another successful year of the LFS Mentorship program. Kick off events last week brought together over 200 student participants and 119 mentors (the highest number of mentors to date). Over 100 of the mentors are LFS alumni, and it is inspiring to observe the continuity and enthusiasm with which our graduates (new and veteran) give back to make a difference in the lives of our students, by supporting their career exploration and learning. The program begins for participants now, but there have been months of hard work and dedication to get us to this point, and Vivian Li, LFS Mentorship Program Assistant (Work Learn student) has been instrumental in developing the programming and executing the event planning needed to ensure all runs smoothly. Thank you to all four of you for your contributions and coordinated efforts to engage such a significant number of students and mentors in this valuable and impactful program.

To nominate a faculty member, staff or graduate student that’s been doing an outstanding job or has gone above and beyond in some way, send an email to lfs.recognition@ubc.ca and tell us why this person should be recognized, along with their email. We’ll send them a $6 Starbucks gift card and acknowledge their good work in LFS Today.

Necessity is the mother of a delicious invention

Gerry Kasten and Joel Barohn are breaking down barriers and redefining how students learn to cook at UBC.

When the pandemic forced them out of the classroom and into the virtual space, Gerry and Joel began recording recipes using the classic one-way directional ‘cooking-show’ model. They soon realized they needed to find a longer-term solution that would support two-way engagement.

The key to Gerry and Joel’s new mixed-delivery approach was the interactive component at the end of each cooking class: students in the kitchen would participate in online discussions with students at home, discussing their cooking experiences and learning from each other.

Read more

Graduate Student Survey: Sustainable Agriculture and Energy Skills

The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) is running a survey to determine how familiar students are with different types of skills. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and when you’re finished taking the survey, you’ll be entered into a draw to win one of two hundred $15 Amazon gift cards.

If you’re interested in taking part in the survey, you can access it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MSWDP9M.

Your input will be used to inform a research project that ICTC is currently working on, and to improve ICTC’s capacity building programs. Thanks for your time and don’t hesitate to contact Mairead Matthews (m.matthews@ictc-ctic.ca) if you have any questions.

Events

Oct. 21 – David Fraser Public Talk

In celebration of the UBC Animal Welfare Program’s 25th anniversary, David Fraser will be featured at a public talk on the evening of Friday, Oct. 21 at Robson Square on 50 Years of Animal Welfare – discussing how animal welfare evolved as an area of social concern and policy, and how science is now helping to improve the lives of animals around the world.

We invite all faculty and staff to attend David’s talk on Friday, Oct. 21, an event which is hosted as part of the UBC Animal Welfare Program’s 25th Anniversary. This event is free – to register and for more information, visit the AWP site.

Deadlines

Oct. 24 – Apply for funding for the operation, maintenance, replacement, repair or upgrade of facilities and research equipment shared by three or more principal investigators

The 2022 Research Facility Support Grants (RFSG) competition is open to faculty located at the UBC Vancouver campus and affiliated hospital sites. It provides one-year grants of up to $50,000 intended to enhance UBC research, training, and equipment sustainability. Funding may be used to cover materials, supplies, replacement of broken parts, and minor upgrades essential to the operation and maintenance of the facility or shared equipment, as well as bridge funding for salaries of research support staff employed to operate and maintain the facility and provide assistance to users.

The application deadline is October 24, 2022.

Further details on this program are available at https://research.ubc.ca/vpri-competitions-initiatives/research-facility-support-grants

Please direct any questions about the RFSG to Stacey.herzer@ubc.ca.

Dec. 20 – The Homegrown Innovation Challenge

The Homegrown Innovation Challenge will identify teams and support the development of tools and technologies that enable Canadian farmers and producers to sustainably and competitively grow berries out of season. By solving the interconnected challenges that currently prevent out-of-season production of berries at scale, the Homegrown Innovation Challenge will catalyze a range of solutions relevant to a broad array of fruit and vegetable crops in Canada and around the world.

The Challenge was launched in February 2022, and is funded and delivered by the Weston Family Foundation.

Key points

• The program will award $33M in total over six years, and an innovation team making it to the end of the Challenge can receive grants totaling up to $8M.
• Applications for entry into the Shepherd Phase ($1M to build out a small proof of concept) are due Dec 20^th 2022. Application to the Spark Phase (deadline passed in May) is not a prerequisite to apply for the Shepherd Phase. Applications may be submitted in English or French.
• We highly encourage multi-stakeholder teams to apply; the lead organization must be a CRA-qualified donee (QD), though non-QDs (including international and for-profit entities) can participate as part of a team. You can join our Circle community to network and help find needed skills, technology and members for your team.

For more information please check our English and French websites (http://homegrownchallenge.ca/ and https://deficultiverlinnovation.ca/) or contact HGC staff (challenge@westonfoundation.ca or defi@westonfoundation.ca).