Transforming Chemical Risk Management
with Indigenous Expertise

Contact: Gunilla Öberg

Transforming Chemical Risk Management with Indigenous Expertise is a new, ambitious, collaborative research initiative that seeks to re-envision chemical risk management. The project brings Indigenous research methods to the challenge of profoundly transforming chemical risk management in Indigenous community-based practice, university labs and classes, regulatory practices, and policy development. This large, interinstitutional research project brings together 20 researchers and collaborators from institutions in Canada and Aotearoa (New Zealand), putting Indigenous experts as leaders in designing how chemical risk is evaluated and managed. It is a six-year-long collaborative effort supported by $22 million through the federal New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). Our project boldly sets out to change how chemical risk is managed in this urgent time of environmental change.

The lead PI for the overall project is Professor M. Murphy (Red River Métis) of School of Environment and WGSI at the University of Toronto, along with Professors Susan Chiblow (Garden River First Nation) of Guelph University, and Gunilla Öberg (originally from Sweden) of UBC. 

The subproject “Curriculum development,” co-led by Dr. Gunilla Öberg and Susan Chiblow, will reimagine the training of the next generation of chemical risk assessment professionals by designing and evaluating teaching materials for undergraduate and graduate students in relevant fields (e.g., (eco)toxicology, chemistry, endocrinology, AI/machine learning), focusing on chemical risk management practices that are ethical and informed by Indigenous Knowledge Systems.

• Link to the UBC advertisement of the project