Our Partnership with University of Toronto

Warwick has a well-established partnership with University of Toronto. In March 2025, we launched a joint seed fund to support the development of collaborative research and education initiatives between the two institutions.

Now in its second year, this fund harnesses the combined strengths of both institutions to seek innovative solutions to challenges that face societies around the world.

Debt, Agriculture and Climate Vulnerability Across the Global South

• Warwick PI: Dr Nicolas BernardsLink opens in a new window

• U of T PI: Dr Ryan IsaksonLink opens in a new window

This research project explores how two major challenges facing rural communities, debt and climate change, interact to shape agricultural livelihoods. Through comparative and historical analysis, the study examines how debt relationships influence vulnerability to climate risks, generating new insights into resilience, adaptation, and the long-term sustainability of rural economies.

AI in Economics Education Lab

• Warwick PI: Professor Caroline Elliott Link opens in a new window
• U of T PI: Professor Christian SpielmannLink opens in a new window

Distributed and Online Machine Unlearning for Streaming AI SystemsLink opens in a new window

• Warwick PI: Professor Peter Triantafillou Link opens in a new window
• U of T PI: Professor Hans-Arno Jacobsen Link opens in a new window

The Architecture of Cognition: A Cross-Atlantic PlatformLink opens in a new window

• Warwick PI: Professor Christoph Hoerl Link opens in a new window

• U of T PI: Dr Sara Aronowitz Link opens in a new window

Building a Modelling–Experimental Partnership for Phase-Change Thermal StorageLink opens in a new window

• Warwick PI: Dr Ferran Brosa PlanellaLink opens in a new window

• U of T PI: Dr Minghan XuLink opens in a new window

Decolonising Knowledge Through Performance and Technology: A Collaborative Research Approach

• Warwick PIs: Professor Silvija Jestrovic & Professor Milija Gluhovic

• U of T PI: Dr Antje Budde

In his work ‘The Ignorant Schoolmaster’, philosopher Jacques Rancière suggests an alternative to the traditional teacher-student hierarchy. He proposes a dialogical relationship where both teacher and student embark on a shared journey of discovery—neither knowing in advance what the outcome will be. Inspired by this idea, this project aims to explore what it means to “decolonise knowledge” as a dynamic, context-specific, and evolving practice in both research and teaching.

Drawing on inhouse methodologies and infrastructure, in particular practice-as research (PaR) at Warwick and the Digital Dramaturgy Lab squared (DDL)² at Toronto, this project aims to expand not just the content of decolonising academic inquiry, but also the methods used to pursue it. The project’s outputs—including performance recordings, digital installations, a podcast series, and open-access toolkits—will serve as lasting resources for educators, artists, researchers, and technologists committed to decolonising their own fields.

Well-being Definition and Measurement Initiative

• Warwick PI: Dr Caspar Kaiser
• U of T PI: Dr Felix Cheung

Over a dozen countries—including Canada and the UK—now mandate the publication and use of well-being indicators in policy-making, driven by programs like the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the World Happiness Report and OECD’s “How’s Life?” project. However, current measurement frameworks face critical limitations. Objective indicators often overlook individual values and lack standardized aggregation methods, while subjective indicators, such as life satisfaction, may omit key dimensions of well-being (i.e. meaning, purpose) and suffer from varying interpretations of the questions and scales. These problems make valid comparisons across individuals, groups, and time periods impossible, limiting their usefulness for research and policy. Given the increasing reliance on these metrics for policy and budgetary decisions, improving their accuracy and comparability is an urgent need.

This initiative aims to develop theoretically sound and measurable frameworks for well-being. It will bring together experts in philosophy, psychology, economics, and public policy to develop practical measurement tools that directly respond to criticisms from multiple academic fields, ensuring these measures are credible and widely adoptable.

Building research and PhD collaborations on Data Justice, Social Justice, and Sustainability

• Warwick PI: Dr Siddharth De Souza
• U of T PI: Professor Christoph Becker

Emerging data technologies often exacerbate social inequity and climate change, two of the most pressing challenges facing the world today, with their capacities to digitally monitor, sort, and control individuals and communities while consuming vast human and planetary resources in the process. The Universities of Toronto and Warwick are preparing our PhD students to take a leading role in addressing these global challenges by taking a global approach to PhD research and education that centers Data Justice, Social Justice, and Sustainability in Technology Design.

Fostering an International Research Partnership on Childhood Disability, Intersectionality and Social Inequality

• Warwick PI: Dr Stella Chatzitheochari
• U of T PI: Professor Sally Lindsay

People with disabilities are considered one of the world’s largest minoritized groups and yet are often overlooked in health and social policies [1, 2]. Although legislation exists to affirm the rights of people with disabilities, they experience many barriers in accessing services, higher education and stable employment [3, 4]. Globally, there are an estimated 180 million children and youth who have a disability [1], including 850,000 in Canada [5] and 2.2 million within the UK [6]. Focusing on children and youth with disabilities is important because they are more likely to experience social and health inequalities (such as discrimination, social exclusion, inequitable access to health care, educational and employment opportunities) compared to children without disabilities [7]. Despite the pronounced social inequalities that disabled children and youth experience, there is a lack of attention to how intersectional factors (e.g., socio-economic status, race, gender) affect their experiences and wellbeing

This project will develop an international research collaboration on childhood disability, intersectionality and social inequality, and facilitate the development of a grant proposal with an intersectional and cross-national research design.

 References

1. World Health Organization. World report on disability. 2011, WHO Press: Geneva, Switzerland.

2. Friedman, H., T. Lopez-Pulmarejo, and L. Friedman, The largest minority group: the disabled. BQuest,2006: p. 1-14.

3. Pinilla-Roncancio, M., et al., Multidimensional poverty and disability: A case control study in India, Cameroon and Guatemala. SSM Population Health, 2020. 11(100591).

4. Fuentes, K., et al., More than just double discrimination: A scoping review of the experiences and impact of ableism and racism in employment. Disability and Rehabilitation, 2024. 46(4): p. 650-671.

5. Canada, S., Canadian survey on disability, 2017. 2018: Ottawa.

6. Kirk-Wade, E., Disability statistics: prevalence and life experiences. 2024, House of Commons: London, UK.

7. UNICEF, State of the world's children: children with disabilities. 2013, UNICEF: New York