A research partnership that includes the Consumers Council of Canada and is led by Prof. Dilip Soman and housed at the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at the Rotman School [BEAR] at the University of Toronto has been awarded a $2.5 million Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for research on “Behaviourally Informed Organizations: Creating an Integrative Theory of Behaviour Change and Embedding it in Organizations”​ over the next five years (2019-2024).

The partnership is composed of a team of 20 researchers and 18 partner organizations across Canada, the U.S., and internationally including private sector firms, government agencies and non-profits, including the Council. With support provided by SSHRC, the University of Toronto, other partner universities, government units, and organizations, the project commitment totals $4.8 million.

Prof. Soman holds the Corus Chair in Communication Strategy and is the Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics at the Rotman School. He is director of the Rotman School’s Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre [BEAR], which conducts leading edge academic research in the field of behavioural economics to help organizations better understand how real people act and in turn, design better products, services, and programs for them.

The grant was announced earlier this month by the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, as part of more than $285 million in grants for over 6,900 researchers and graduate students across Canada through SSHRC, a federal research funding agency that promotes and supports postsecondary-based research and research training in the humanities and social sciences.