Wicked Ideas Winners

The Wicked Ideas Competition is a Vice-Principal Research pilot initiative to fund and support research collaboration and excellence. 

Wicked Problems are issues so complex and dependent on so many factors that it is hard to grasp what exactly the problem is, or how to tackle it. Wicked Ideas are needed to solve these problems, and demand the input of multiple disciplines with relevant practical expertise.

This competition will fund Wicked Ideas that respond to local, national and global challenges, by supporting the formation of research teams that offer the expertise and perspectives needed to tackle these challenges. 

Inaugural Recipients

Investigator Project Title
David Lyon (Sociology) &
Dan Cohen  (Geography and Planning)
Big data exposed: What smartphone metadata reveals about users
 (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences) &
 (Chemistry)
Untitled
 (Emergency Medicine) &
St茅fanie von Hlatky  (Political Studies)
Untitled
Joe Bramante  (Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy) &
James Fraser  (Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy)
Macro coherent quantum transitions in parahydrogen
(Chemistry) &
(Chemistry)
Immortal solar cells
(Civil Engineering) &
 (Civil Engineering)
Using cleantech to monitor geosynthetic liners in frozen grounds for sustainable development of sub-Arctic and Arctic mineral resources
(Chemistry) &
 (Chemistry)
Solving the water-removal bottleneck in sustainable chemistry
(Rehabilitation) &
(Mechanical and Materials Engineering)
Untitled
 (Chemical Engineering) &
Pascale Champagne (Civil Engineering)
Reducing the greenhouse gas burden of livestock by harnessing carbon-neutral algae to produce milk.
(Biology) &
 (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences)
The E.D.G.E. of Lyme
(Mechanical and Materials Engineering) & 
 (Mechanical and Materials Engineering)
Materials performance in molten salt reactor (MSR) environments proposed for advanced nuclear systems
Heather Castleden  (Geography and Planning) &
Diane Orihel  (Biology)
The spirit of the lakes and all their relations: Two-Eyed Seeing in microplastics research