Notice Board

The Alberta Prion Research Institute (APRI) was founded in the wake of the 2003 BSE crisis which decimated the Alberta beef and cattle industries. APRI has invested significant funding in fundamental and applied research to better understand this disease, and you can read about their many initiatives on this web page. But the Institute is also keen to support investigations of the broader public health, economic, environmental, and social consequences of these diseases. One of the four core areas the Institute identifies is prion diseases (TSEs) and society: "Studying policy and response modeling, assessing economic and sociological components of community impact, risk perceptions, consumer acceptance and impact on markets, and ensuring fair and accurate communication of scientific advances. This component will also provide information useful to all levels of government for the development of public policies regarding TSEs."

A sample range of possible research questions/projects might include the following:

• What is the social and/or economic impact of increasing prion diseases (TSEs) in Alberta and on the prairies in general?
• Broader health and social challenges associated with TSEs
• What underappreciated insights can e.g. traditional hunters contribute to how chronic wasting disease CWD has increased in these regions?
• What impacts does CWD pose for First Nations communities in particular?
• What new models of the health of wildlife populations might help better measure the impact of CWD and control reponses?
• What do economic models have to say about the continuing impact of BSE and CWD on Alberta's industries?
• How can effective mechanisms for knowledge exchange be developed to engage the spectrum of CWD stakeholders?
• What particular challenges do First Nations, Metis, and Inuit researchers and traditional hunters observe for CWD control and management?

If you are a health or social science researcher broadly interested in the impact of these diseases, please join APRI Executive Director Kevin Keough on Sept. 29 in AH100 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. to hear about how their fuding programs work and how projects for them might be developed.

Please find more details about the APRI funding programs at this web page.