New Research Grants: Urban Challenge Grant and XSeed
🚨 New Research Incoming @ TCO! 📚 We’re excited to announce two new research grants that the TCO has recently been awarded! These grants will allow us to deepen our work at the intersection of flooding, equity, and infrastructure resilience in Southern Ontario and beyond:
🔷 Urban Challenge Grant – School of Cities, University of Toronto TCO has been awarded the 2025-26 Urban Challenge Grant from the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, as part of its latest call focused on inequality, data, and democracy. Building on our past collaboration evaluating public flood data in the GTA, this project will develop a framework to assess the equity, quality, and usability of public flood information. Our goal is to identify priorities for improving flood information infrastructures and inform smarter, more equitable investments in these infrastructures across Southern Ontario. Read about all grant recipients here: https://schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/programs-opportunities/urban-challenge-grant/urban-challenge-grants-4/
🔶 2025–2027 Joint EMHSeed & XSeed Grant – Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (FASE) TCO has also received funding from the Joint EMHSeed and XSeed Program at U of T, in collaboration with FASE and the Faculty of Arts & Science. This interdisciplinary initiative will launch a flood reconnaissance team to investigate how past and future flood events impact underserved communities and the built environment in the GTA. We’ll co-develop data collection protocols with community partners, build initial tech infrastructure needed to conduct post-flood reconnaissance in select communities in the GTA, and study local and national flood events to generate actionable, community-informed insights.
Together, these projects advance our mission to: ✅ Improve flood resilience ✅ Build equitable data systems ✅ Support communities most impacted by climate risk
We’re deeply grateful to our partners, collaborators, and funders for their support and shared commitment to advancing equitable climate solutions. Stay tuned as we share research milestones, community insights, and opportunities to get involved!