Graduate Training

Young Scholars program is first to train scientists to tackle the issues that impact children’s mental health and development

The Offord Centre has become the first place in Canada to offer a formal training program for emerging scientists who want to study the influences that shape child health and development.

The Young Scholars program is supported by a $500,000 commitment from the Lawson Foundation, a leader in funding programs that enrich the development of children and families.  It will create training positions for four young scholars, who will spend two years each learning how to design and conduct studies aimed at improving our understanding of the social, cultural and other factors that affect the health of children and their ability to develop into well-adjusted and productive adults.

“The future for Canada’s children just got a whole lot brighter,” said Dr. Peter Szatmari, Director of the Centre, in announcing the initiative.  “For more than 20 years, the Offord Centre has led the call for increased resources to help train new and emerging scientists to carry on our work.  This investment will go a long way toward ensuring that kids get what they deserve – programs and services that are based on the very best scientific evidence around what works and what doesn’t to improve child health and well-being.”

Unique to the program will be a mentoring component that exposes the trainees to disciplines outside their specific area of training.  This collaborative approach is essential, said Dr. Szatmari, when looking at the social, emotional and behavioural problems of children and youth.

“Researchers need to focus not just on one problem but on the many problems that children can experience growing up.  They need to be able to tackle those problems from every possible perspective using skill sets from a broad range of disciplines.”