The Gen Squeeze ‘Think and Change Tank’ is a university-community collaboration. This is important, because alliances between community organizations and postsecondary institutions bring together the evidence base with the public policy dialogue and engagement skills required to mobilize this knowledge to solve complex social and economic problems — like generational fairness. 

Hosted at the University of BC School of Population and Public Health, the Gen Squeeze Research and Knowledge Mobilization Lab ensures that all of our work meets rigorous academic research standards. The Lab is led by Gen Squeeze Founder, Dr. Paul Kershaw, who has received multiple awards for scholarly excellence, along with numerous academic grants. At the University of BC, Dr. Kershaw is also the Director of the Masters of Public Health Program.   

The Lab is funded entirely from academic sources — for example, grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Dr. Kershaw’s salary from the University of BC. Commercial interests do not provide any funding to the Gen Squeeze Lab, nor do they contribute to Dr. Kershaw’s salary. The Lab gives all policy recommendations of relevance equal weight during research projects, publications, presentations, media, etc.

The Lab works with the Gen Squeeze charity to disseminate and mobilize research to make findings accessible to Canadians and their political leaders, and to build a network of people who believe that Canada should work for all generations. Dr. Kershaw’s work with the Gen Squeeze charity is all voluntary. He receives no remuneration or gifts from the charity.  His Lab’s collaboration with the charity is reported annually, complying with University of BC Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment guidelines.

(Image credit: UBC Media Relations)