About IMI Research Grants
IMI’s Research Grants support our faculty members in their efforts to conduct leading-edge research contributing to IMI’s mission in transforming thinking to solve the hardest problems facing people, their communities, and societies globally. The grants are intended to assist in developing, sustaining and expanding research initiatives.
2024 IMI Research Grant Recipients
The Institute for Management and Innovation is delighted to announce the 2024 winners of the IMI Research Grants.
Ann Armstrong, Ningyuan Chen, Rueben Gaetani and Jody Grewal will receive grants in 2024 to embark on research that touches many topics central to IMI’s expertise. Further, the research initiatives driven by our faculty grant recipients make strides to further the University of Toronto’s goals in innovation and entrepreneurship, sustainable futures, and inclusive societies. We are thrilled to support each project and look forward to the outcomes of these important studies. Our researchers are highlighted in our IMI Impact: Research & Discovery Series also.
Ann Armstrong
Academia – Patriarchy in Action
Ann Armstrong, Director of ICUBE, is an expert on social entrepreneurship, and her work spans green curricula to organizational design to academic trauma. Her 2024 IMI Research Grant will go toward a forthcoming book. This research, focused on gendered oppression in academia, explores the moral injuries that women academics suffer and re-imagines the academic endeavour’s structures and process. She is co-authoring the proposed book with the former IMI Director, Soo Min Toh.
Read more about Ann's work here.
Ningyuan Chen
The Economics and Operations of Productizing Machine Learning Models
Ningyuan Chen is a faculty member in the Department of Management and IMI, cross-appointed to Rotman. Ningyuan’s research objective is to demonstrate how incorporating pricing strategies can provide new insights into classical machine learning development, looking closely at the implications of pricing in the context of active learning. In particular, the research will have practical implications for the operations of companies providing artificial intelligence such as LLMs as services, a key component of Canadian national AI strategy.
Read more about Ningyuan's work here.
Ruben Gaetani
Determinants and implications of the diffusion of technology across countries and regions
Ruben Gaetani is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Management and IMI, cross-appointed to Rotman. Ruben is focused on understanding the drivers and implications of geographical diffusion of technology, which is critical for the design of growth and innovation policies. Ruben’s grant will support dual studies, developing a spatial model to quantify the role that the process of idea diffusion plays in explaining the growth dynamics of regions, and assessing the impact of trade liberalizations on the patterns of international technology transfers.
Read more about Ruben's work here.
Jody Grewal
Effects of mandatory carbon reporting on unrepresentative environmental disclosures
Jody Grewal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and IMI, and cross-appointed to Rotman, as well as the Academic Assocaite Director of Training and Knowledge Mobilization at the Climate Positive Energy Initiatives, a U of T ISI. Jody’s research agenda focuses on how companies contribute to and mitigate climate change, and the role of transparency in reducing corporate carbon emissions. This grant will support her project examining whether mandatory carbon reporting reduces the disclosure of favorable versus unfavorable environmental information, a form of greenwashing.
Read more about Jody's work here.