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Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!
Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!

Faculty of Arts and Science

Faculty of Arts and Science

FUTURE EARTH

Your planet needs you!

Photo courtesy of Bill Oxford from Unsplash

Ready to start tackling climate change today?

Concordia University is proud to announce an innovative new program in partnership with Future Earth that tackles such urgent environmental issues as climate change head-on: The Leadership in Environmental and Digital innovation for Sustainability (LEADS) project.

The premise

Human activity is impacting our planet in a way that has pushed it to the edge of irreversible damage.

  • LEADS aims to develop leaders who, by leveraging digital technology, can provide sustainable science-based solutions to the most critical challenges that currently threaten the stability of our climate and ecosystems

The program

The digital revolution is offering scientists unprecedented opportunities to gather, analyze and communicate their findings faster – and to a much wider audience – than ever before.

  • Through the power of advanced digital tools and techniques, the LEADS graduate training program will enable us to accelerate the pace towards ultimately achieving the Sustainable Development Goals set out by world leaders, as well as the climate goals of the Paris Agreement
Damon Matthews
We will train a new generation of leaders to help solve global sustainability challenges.

Damon Matthews, PhD, Training Program Leader

Professor and Tier 1 Concordia University Research Chair (Climate Science and Sustainability) in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

The curriculum

Courses will be taught online and cover a wide array of topics ranging from social media strategy and digital tools to machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Thematic research components of the LEADS program will focus on such areas as:

  • Scientific foundational work in support of climate mitigation goals
  • Better communication strategies for more effective policy implementation 

Trainees will also gain hands-on experience with opportunities to participate in internships with Future Earth to work on Canadian-led or international sustainability projects.

Amy Lynd Luers, PhD
Humanity today is interconnected through, and dependent on, both the digital and natural worlds, creating massive opportunities and equally large challenges. The next generation of leaders must be bilingual in both digital and sustainability issues.

Amy Luers, PhD, Executive Director of Future Earth and Affiliate Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

The participants

This program is open to graduate-level students and postdoctoral fellows who are interested in training to become scientific leaders in the global sustainability community.

  • Potential student applicants must be enrolled either at Concordia University, McGill University, Université de Montréal, or Université du Québec à Montréal

 

The outcome

Successful participants will acquire through the LEADS program the unique skills, knowledge and experience necessary to:

  • Inform major climate policies worldwide
  • Influence research agendas towards achieving current sustainability goals
  • Promote dialogue between like-minded research communities crucial for everything from interdisciplinary collaborations to policy communication 
NSERC-CREATE-LEADS

This initiative is made possible by a $1.65 million grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program and is being co-led by McGill University, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and Université de Montréal.

Learn more about the LEADS initiative
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