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Ontario Research Fund Project

Project Members: John Whalley, Manmohan Agarwal, Jim Davies (UWO), and Terry Sicular (UWO)

BACKGROUND

This is a five-year project (August  2009–September 2014) conducted by the China Research and Policy Group at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), and is principally funded by UWO, CIGI and the Ontario Research Fund, an initiative of the Province of Ontario. The project aims to produce policy-relevant original research, achieve policy impact primarily in China and examine China’s interactions with other larger developing countries. It focuses on five themes:

  1. China’s trade and foreign investment;
  2. China’s exchange rates, reserve management and monetary polices;
  3. China and climate change;
  4. China’s tax policies; and
  5. China and the South.

Alongside these research efforts, the project provides mobility and research grants for young post-doctoral fellows, mainly from China, to produce policy-relevant research, achieve policy impact and produce information flows. Please visit the UWO project website for more information.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

The project has a working paper series providing scholarly research reports by post-doctoral fellows and project researchers, intended for publication in academic journals or other scholarly outlets. The papers are made available on the UWO project website. CIGI policy briefs may arise from this work as well.

The project also typically holds two conferences a year, one in China and one in Canada. The first of these was in China on Climate and Inequality in China and was held in spring 2010 at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and at Beijing Normal University. An informal project lunch seminar is held weekly at UWO. Previous events are detailed on the main UWO project website.

Outreach is a significant part of the project’s goals;  the project encourages policy dialogue through participation in outside events, media interviews, and newspaper commentary, both inside and outside China. The project also engages a number of academic partners and collaborators in China and other countries. A listing of these activities can be found on the UWO project website.

PARTNERS

  • University of Western Ontario
  • The Centre for International Governance Innovation
  • Ministry of Research and Innovation, Province of Ontario