90K in SSHRC funding backs legal research with impact
October 02, 2025
Image LTR: Professors Valerie Oosterveld, Bassem Awad, Francesco Ducci and Alfonso Nocilla
Four Western Law professors have secured $90,000 in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) fueling timely legal research in the areas of the prosecution of gender-based violence, patent law and climate justice, anti-trust law, and cross-border insolvency.
Professors Valerie Oosterveld and Bassem Awad were among the inaugural recipients of the SSHRC Destination Horizon Grants. Destination Horizon Grants support researchers to build capacity, foster existing partnerships, and further develop networks and consortia with researchers from the European Union and other designated countries.
Professors Francesco Ducci and Alfonso Nocilla were both successful in their applications for the newly introduced internal Western funding opportunity, the SSHRC Catalyst Grant. Its purpose is to support early-stage research and associated activities that are expected to increase the likelihood of success in subsequent external grant competitions.
Influencing the prosecution of gender-based violence
Professor Valerie Oosterveld was awarded $30,000 ($15,000 from SSHRC, $7,500 from Western Research and $7,500 from Western Law) for her project, Improving the Identification, Investigation, and Prosecution of Technology-facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Armed Conflict and Situations of Mass Atrocity. The project focuses on the fact that perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are increasingly using technology to carry out gender-based violence crimes.
Current gender-based violence crime investigative protocols used by international criminal law practitioners do not provide adequate guidance on how best to identify technology-facilitated gender-based violence using gender-sensitive, victim-centred and trauma-informed methods, apart from rare exceptions. Oosterveld’s project aims to fill the knowledge and guidance gap on technology-facilitated gender-based violence crimes, in light of the general trend toward both increased use of technology in the commission of these crimes, and in investigations and prosecutions of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Identifying pathways to advance climate goals in patent law
Professor Bassem Awad was awarded $30,000 ($15,000 from SSHRC, $7,500 from Western Research and $7,500 from Western Law) for his project, Patent Law and Climate Justice. Awad's project explores the legal frameworks within, around, and beyond the current patent system that can be leveraged to ensure equitable access to green technologies and promote climate justice.
Among the technical, social and financial barriers to accessing green technologies, intellectual property, particularly the patent system, raises challenges regarding the transfer and timely diffusion of environmentally sound technologies required for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Patents granted over clean innovation are considered one of the key barriers to access climate-change related technologies necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Awad’s project seeks to identify and address barriers hindering the effective transfer of climate-friendly technologies and to develop actionable solutions for advancing climate goals. In its first phase, the project will establish a pioneering Canada-European Union Partnership on Intellectual Property for Climate Justice, a collaborative research network that brings together experts from Canada and the European Union.
Establishing a framework for privacy-based justifications in anti-trust cases
Professor Francesco Ducci, and his co-applicant Professor Michael Sullivan from the Department of Economics, were awarded $16,000 for their project, Privacy and Competition. The project seeks to develop a theoretical framework to assess privacy-based justifications in anti-trust cases. It asks whether a restriction of competition imposed by a platform to preserve privacy can result in more competitive conditions overall.
Studying Canada’s cross-border insolvency regime
Professor Alfonso Nocilla received $14,000 for his project, Cross-Border Insolvency Law in Canada: The New Era of Modified Universalism. Nocilla will conduct a comprehensive study of Canada's modern cross-border insolvency regime. His research will inform debates about whether Canada should adopt the Model Law on Enterprise Group Insolvency and the Model Law on the Recognition and Enforcement of Insolvency-Related Judgments.
Other recent research awards and accolades
- Professor Andrew Botterell has been appointed as Western Research Chair – Innovation, effective January 1, 2026. This prestigious appointment recognizes Professor Botterell’s outstanding interdisciplinary work at the intersection of criminal law, moral and political philosophy, and social science research involving Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
- Professor Akis Psygkas was named Western Law's Faculty Scholar for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years recognizing his significant recent scholarly achievements in teaching and research.
- Professor Rory Gillis was named the recipient of the 2025 Dean’s Research Fellowship, which includes $10,000 in funding for his project The Judicial Treatment of Distributive Fairness in Tax Case Law.
- Professor Valerie Oosterveld is part of an interdisciplinary team of Western University researchers that has been awarded a Rotman Institute Interdisciplinary Think Tank Award, including $15,000 in funding, for their project Satellite Constellations.
- Professor Stephen Pitel has been granted $11,730 in funding by the Canadian Foundation for Legal Research for his project Reconsidering the 'Necessary or Proper Party' Basis for Jurisdiction.
- Professors Ryan Liss (principal applicant) and Valerie Oosterveld (co-applicant), along with their Western Academy for Advanced Research colleague Bipasha Baruah (co-applicant), have received a conference support grant of $10,000 for their Possibilities for Peaceproject from the Law Commission of Canada.
- Professor Jennifer Farrell was awarded a 2025 International Fiscal Association (IFA) Canada Grant for $14841.60 for her project, The European Union's Foreign Subsidies Regulation Rules: Investigating the Tax Impact. She also received a grant from the Ivey Business School's affiliate, CPA Ontario Centre for Accounting and the Public Interest for $7000 for her project, Canada’s Digital Services Tax (DST): Characterization as a Tax, Compatibility with International Law and Its Fate under the New US Trump Administration.
