The Ocean Frontier Institute’s (OFI) Community Climate Adaptation Fund is designed to support innovative researcher-community engagement at the intersection of ocean, climate change, and community adaptation.
This new funding initiative will support the co-creation of research, programs, and climate adaptation solutions with communities, and help ensure that research, commercial ventures, and social innovations are grounded in local needs, traditional knowledge, and lived experiences.
The fund is guided by four key objectives:
The inclusion of community knowledge systems and lived experiences – obtained through engagement with Indigenous or non-Indigenous communities – will help ensure the development of projects that meaningfully advance climate adaptation goals.
Create opportunities for graduate students to serve in a leadership role in the research and project development, while community co-leads will ensure projects align with local realities.
Projects will address the needs of communities that are most vulnerable to climate change, empowering collaborative solutions that are scalable and sustainable.
Projects should be positioned to advance future research, commercial ventures or policy initiatives.
By providing initial funding support, OFI’s Community Climate Adaptation Fund is intended to help participants explore innovative climate adaptation ideas and create pathways for the work to continue beyond the initial funding.
Interested researchers and community organizations are encouraged to subscribe to the OFI newsletter to keep informed of when the Community Climate Adaption fund opens for applications in early 2025.
OFI’s Community Climate Adaptation Fund is supported in part by Suncor Energy Foundation.