Hospital emergency rooms face many challenges including overcrowding due, in part, to repeat visitors. Some are patients with mental health issues or addictions who return because they don’t know where else to go during a crisis. But ERs aren’t always the best places for them.

“I don’t think I realized I was an entrepreneur at first,” says Jeremy Koenig, founder of Halifax-based genomics start-up, Athletigen. “But then as I got more experience, I started to realize how my background in research could be an asset to me in founding a company — so I did just that.”

For communities in rural Manitoba and Canada’s North, seasonal ice roads are a vital part of living remotely; however, climate change has caused them to form later or melt earlier than in previous years. Communities have had to charter aircraft to deliver basic foodstuffs and medicine — an expensive undertaking that is contributing to skyrocketing costs of living.

One approach to helping these issues that is gaining traction is participatory arts and culture activities made by and for members of Indigenous communities. By creating tools for storytelling and culture-sharing, researchers and community members are working together to empower Indigenous youth to explore their creative capacities and imagine possibilities for bright futures.

As the province with the highest crime rate in Canada, Saskatchewan has also been increasingly successful at reducing the rate and severity of crimes since 2003. Innovative approaches to policing and crime reduction have helped to tackle one of the most pressing social issues in the province.

Denisse’s project explores the experiences of female migrants and their patterns of sending money earned abroad back to their country of origin, known as remittances.

Clara’s research involves a comprehensive account of land use and occupancy relationships for the Lac Seul and Slate Falls First Nations, both Anishinabe (Ojibwa) communities in Northern Ontario.

My research is particularly important because it identified that stigma may be preventing open discussions about the risk for psychiatric disorders. An open discussion is the first step in making sure patients receive proper and timely mental health care, which can greatly improve prognosis.