Global Health and Well Being Seed Grant Competition – Deadline Extended

10-20-14 globalhealthnews

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the UIC Global Excellence Task Force and the UIC College of Medicine’s Center for Global Health, with the cooperation of Great Cities Institute, are in the second year of our program to foster new trans-disciplinary and mixed and multiple methods research in global health and well-being at UIC, The Global Health and Well Being Seed Grant.

Grants will be made for new hypothesis driven pilot research with a substantial likelihood of gaining external funding or that can be completed with a limited budget. Priority will be given to projects that:

• address global health and well-being research priorities;
• integrate multiple elements which can include, for example, biomedical science, social science, humanities, architecture, art, communications, urban planning, business, criminal justice, diversity, social justice and engineering;
• incorporate mixed and multiple methods;
• include investigators from both UIC’s East and West campuses.

This opportunity is open to full time tenure and non-tenure track faculty from any department. Applications must involve a minimum of 2 colleges representing both East and West campuses – only one of which can be from the health sciences. Each award will be a base maximum of $15K for one year; up to an additional $5 K will be awarded if matched 1:1 by the involved colleges, departments, or centers.

Deadlines
Letter of Intent: Tuesday, June 1, 2015 –Noon

Application: Application: Thursday, July 1, 2015 – Noon

Awards announced: September 2015

For RFA and forms visit CGH website: http://globalhealth.uic.edu/uic-global-health-seed-grant-project

Questions should be referred to .

With these applications we invite you to build teams capable of creating global solutions to shared health and well-being challenges.

Sincerely,

Stevan Weine
Professor of Psychiatry
Director, Global Health Research Training, CGH
Director, International Center of Responses to Catastrophes

Teresa Cordova
Director and Professor
Great Cities Institute

On the Table – Sharing Our Infrastructure Needs

Tuesday, May 12, 2015
4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

CMAP Offices
Willis Tower
233 South Wacker Drive, Suite 800
Chicago, IL 60606
May 11 – 15 is National Infrastructure Week – a topic that is near and dear to our hearts. Join the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s Citizens Advisory Committee and UIC Great Cities Institute on the table to discuss the critical importance of investing in our regions’ infrastructure. As part of the Chicago Community Trust’s On the Table initiative, we invite you to come share your ideas on how we can modernize our infrastructure system to compete with other U.S. and global economic centers.

Please join us on May 12 for an On The Table discussion focused on infrastructure with local partners, colleagues, and friends. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided.
Space is limited. Please RSVP to Ricardo Lopez at rlopez@cmap.illinois.gov or 312-386-8766.

Part of The Chicago Community Trust’s On the Table 2015 Initiative

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New CTA boss will need his experience as fare hike looms

clarkmaxwell via Flickr.com

clarkmaxwell via Flickr.com

Crain’s Chicago Business quotes Steve Schlickman, executive director of the Urban Transportation Center, on the appointment of Dorval Carter to CTA chief and the need to raise fares to make up for Gov. Rauner’s budget cuts and the cost of rebuilding and extending the Red Line.

Financing so far has come in only “incrementally,” says Steve Schlickman, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Billions of dollars” are needed for that, Schlickman adds, plus another $1 billion-plus to extend the Red Line south to the city limits, and additional billions for the rest of the system.

“How do you fund that” without forcing the CTA to further borrow against its regular income stream, Schlickman asks. Unless Washington comes through in a big way, “there’s no financial plan.”

Adding to the pressure: Gov. Bruce Rauner is proposing to slash about $120 million in state operating assistance to the CTA. Regional Transportation Authority Chairman Kirk Dillard signaled yesterday that he can live with that if Rauner in exchange will provide more money for capital.

“It will be extremely difficult” for the CTA to accept a $120 million cut, Schlickman says. “I don’t know how you can find that money in a budget that’s already been squeezed.”

Full Story from Crain’s Chicago Business »

 

Neighborhood-Based Sustainable Food Waste Management

One in six people in Cook County are food insecure (Feeding America, 2012). Meanwhile, nearly 550,000 tons of food waste are annually generated in the City of Chicago alone and most of the discarded food are landfilled (City of Chicago, 2010). Globally, about one-third of food produced for human consumption, approximately 1.3 billion tons, is lost or wasted each year (FAO, 2013; Vermeulen et al. 2012).

The disparity between excessive food consumption and inadequate/inconvenient food supply, the missing link between food waste generation and potential uses of food discards (e.g., direct reuse, animal feed, industrial reuse, fertilizer, and composting), and the missing conduit to convey information to consumers and producers have led to critical challenges in complex and intertwined ways, such as economic inefficiency, environmental pollution, and social inequity.

Integrating two distinct fields of urban planning and computer science, this study develops a neighborhood-level approach to sustainable food waste management, models food waste generation from various land use types, and matches food discards with potential recycling opportunities. This study aims to provide refined data references to support participatory decision-making process, to facilitate collaboration among businesses, residents, and industries as community consortia in food waste reuse and recovery, and to minimize food waste disposal and its ensuing environmental, economic, and social impacts.

Dr. Ning Ai’s research and teaching interests focus on urban environmental planning and its integration with land use, industrial ecology, and sustainable economic development.  She has worked for the World Bank, the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., and the Georgia State Department of Natural Resources.  Her previous work experiences include the application of GIS in environmental protection, urban sustainability indicators, and the socioeconomic impact analysis of natural disasters.  Most recently, Dr. Ai has engaged in the socioeconomic and spatial analysis of material and waste management, with a focus on electronic waste, post-consumer carpet, and municipal solid waste.

Dr. Isabel Cruz research areas include databases, geographic information systems, semantic web, information visualization, and security.  Her current topics of research include information extraction and matching, big data (e.g., for geographical and biomedical information), visual analytics, context-aware role-based access control, data linking for urban resilience and sustainability, and crowdsourcing. With her students, Dr. Cruz has developed GIVA, an award-winning framework for the integration of spatial and temporal data.

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Cities Across the Globe: People and Places Across Borders

Full Program »

As part of GCI’s research cluster Dynamics of Global Mobility,
we announce the 2nd annual symposium on Cities Across the Globe.
You are invited to attend what promises to be a very exciting time
with scholars from both UIC and other parts of the world.

April 29

9:30 am – 11:00 am

Thompson Room
Student Center West

Keynote Speaker:

Global Exchange: Building Local Economies Through World Trade

The Honorable
Diego Aulestia
Minister of International Trade
Republic of Ecuador

Panel Discussion:

The Pivotal Impact of International Trade on Our Neighborhoods

Moderator:
Teresa Córdova, Director, UIC Great Cities Institute
Panelists:
Laura Ortega-Lamela, Executive Director International Business Council, Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Thomas W. Bartkoski, Director, International Business Development, World Business Chicago
Raul Raymundo, Chief Executive Officer The Resurrection Project

April 30

8:30 am – 4:30 pm

Resident’s Dining Hall
Jane Addams Hull-House

Symposium:

Cities Across the Globe: People and Places Across Borders

Distinguished
Scholars
From Africa, Asia, Europe,
the Americas and UIC

Including:
Joseph Bangura, West Africa
Moises Gonzalez, New Mexico
Ian McGimpsey, University of Birmingham
Clare Mouat, Australia
Ali Ercan Özgür, Istanbul, Turkey
José Rivera, New Mexico
Elizabeth Sweet, Temple University
Claudia Villegas, Mexico City
Francisco Uviña, New Mexico
Deborah Youdell, Birmingham, UK

UIC Scholars:
Tingwei Zhang
Ivan Arenas
Xochitl Bada
Tarini Bedi
John Betancur
Andy Clarno
Teresa Córdova
Glenda Garelli
Tim Imeokparia
Atef Said
Lynette Jackson

Full Program »

Full Program »
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Categories:

CPS’ billion-dollar budget hole leaves unappealing options

deanpagano700x375

The Chicago Tribune quotes Michael Pagano, GCI fellow and dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, on the budget deficit faced by Chicago Public Schools. Pagano says the long-term cost to CPS of declaring bankruptcy would outweigh any short-term gains.

CPS, which is negotiating to avoid $228 million in penalty payments related to its derivative contracts, would theoretically have more money for education if it broke free of those liabilities. But the long-term cost of declaring bankruptcy would far outweigh any short-term gains, said Michael Pagano, dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs.

“Imagine the district needing to borrow money in the future,” Pagano said. “Are you going to trust a school district that has not honored its commitments in the past?”

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »

Do TIFs Cost Chicago Schools Money Or Not?

Dr. Beth Brooks (president of Resurrection University) Carole Brown, (chairperson of the TIF reform task force), Sandra Bruce (president and CEO of Provena-Resurrection), and Rahm Emanuel in January 2012. Resurrection received TIF funding from the city when it relocated to Wicker Park. PHOTO: NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Dr. Beth Brooks (president of Resurrection University) Carole Brown, (chairperson of the TIF reform task force), Sandra Bruce (president and CEO of Provena-Resurrection), and Rahm Emanuel in January 2012. Resurrection received TIF funding from the city when it relocated to Wicker Park. PHOTO: NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Chicago Magazine extensively interviewed Rachel Weber, associate professor of urban planning and policy, on the workings of tax increment financing (TIF) and how TIF affects school funding, property taxes and development in Chicago.

There’s a logic to this (even if it contained a significant flaw). The amount of money that Chicago schools can get in a given year is limited to a certain amount above what they received in the prior year. Here’s how it works, as explained to me by UIC prof Rachel Weber:

“Your tax extension is not allowed to increase by more than five percent every year, or the rate of inflation. [The extension] depends on two main things: the tax base and the rate. Multiplied by each other, that equals their extension. If [municipalities] are restricted from raising their tax extension every year by a certain amount, then if their base grows wildly, just because developers are building a lot, or there’s a lot of demand for property in an area so that property values appreciate, they have to lower their rate in response, to comply with the tax cap.”

Full Story from Chicago Magazine »

UIC Global Health & Well-Being Research Seed Grant Program RFA

10-20-14 globalhealthnews

In cooperation with Great Cities Institute, the UIC Global Excellence Task Force and the UIC College of Medicine’s Center for Global Health has established an annual seed grant program designed to foster new trans-disciplinary and mixed and multiple methods research in global health and well-being at UIC. In particular, these grants will encourage new pilot research with a substantial likelihood of gaining external funding or that can be completed with a limited budget.

Priority will be given to projects that: 1) address global health and well-being research priorities; 2) integrate multiple approaches which can include, for example, biomedical science, social science, humanities, architecture, art, communications, urban planning, business, criminal justice, diversity, social justice and engineering; 3) incorporate mixed and multiple methods; 4) include investigators from both UIC’s East and West campuses.

For more information, see the full RFA »