BRIDGE Research Consortium
Part of Canada’s Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub
The Bridge Research Consortium (BRC) is one of four projects funded by the Government of Canada, as part of Canada’s Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub (CIEBH) led by the University of British Columbia, and one of 19 projects funded under Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy. The aim of the strategy is “to rebuild a strong and resilient domestic biomanufacturing and life sciences sector” ahead of a future pandemic event.
About the Project
While Canada is poised to achieve rapid advances, driven by a range of exciting scientific breakthroughs, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that careful attention must also be paid to supporting their optimal uptake. Vaccine acceptance and access have declined in some populations globally, and in Canada, over the past decade—and notably since the pandemic. This risks the return of vaccine preventable diseases and undermines the capacity for Canada to respond effectively to a future public health emergency. In this context, there is now widespread recognition that the social sciences and humanities are essential to the transformative potential of investments in biomanufacturing and the life sciences.
The BRC, as a unique Canadian collaboration of leading social sciences and humanities scholars, will work with the CIEBH and other hubs across Canada to support the acceptance and accessibility of immune-based innovations. This will be achieved through multidisciplinary research, training and knowledge mobilization activities integrated across the therapeutic pipeline and immunization system. The Consortium aims to better understand and support strategies to tackle challenging issues such as mis/disinformation, public trust, and equity. Consortium members are committed to understanding wide-ranging perspectives, engaging in meaningful collaborations, and cocreating collective actions that bridge a broad range of stakeholders and communities.
Digital Democracies involvement in the BRIDGE Research Consortium
Our project explores the environments in which information about biomanufactured products circulates and where the public trust about the use of such products is limited. We conceptualize these environments as micro spaces of trust: spaces shaped by the homophilic dynamics of recommendation algorithms, responsible for grouping users along some common dimensions and exacerbating inter-group differences.
We will conduct case studies examining micro spaces of trust over three years to understand how their members develop trust among each other, and they come to perceive certain news sources as authentic and, therefore, trustable. The case studies will rely on the research persona method. This qualitative approach involves leveraging the researcher’s positionality within algorithmic environments to examine how information is created and shared through the interaction of devices, interfaces, infrastructures, user behaviours, and data flows. Learning more about the processes of trust creation within micro spaces is essential for informing strategies to counter the circulation of mis- and dis-information about biomanufactured products.
In parallel to the research persona case studies, we will conduct a mixed-method analysis of historical data gathered from major social media platforms and news organizations. The case study focuses on a controversial moment during the COVID-19 pandemic: the March 2021 suspension of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada for people under 55. The analysis will combine qualitative and quantitative methods and tools developed at the Digital Democracies Institute (DDI) for detecting and measuring online conflict and authenticity. The outcomes of this study provide valuable insights to health communicators about the role of authentication and conflict in spreading misinformation and disinformation regarding biomanufactured products.
People Involved
Co-Directors
Professor of Anthropology at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada and a researcher at the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval.
Professor, Canada Research Chair Tier I in Global Health Governance, Simon Fraser University. She is a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
At the Digital Democracies Institute
Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Communications at Simon Fraser University.
Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media and Digital Democracies Institute Director.
SSHRC postdoctoral fellow and Digital Democracies Institute Deputy Director.
Research Associate at the Digital Democracies Institute.
Computer Scientist at the Digital Democracies Institute.
Around the World:
Associate Professor of News, Social Media, and Public Communication at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University
Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health, and Research Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta. He was the Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy for over 20 years (2002–2023).
Dean of the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University. She has served as honorary member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, a Canada Research Chair, and a fellow at the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and Massey College.
Associate Professor, Michael Smith Health Research Scholar, Simon Fraser University.
Professor, Department of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases), Dalhousie University. She is a Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, University Research Professor, Distinction, Dalhousie University, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health and Community, University of the Fraser Valley.
Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto. She is also Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Transparency and Accountability in the Pharmaceutical Sector
Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC and Research Director at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.
Senior Lecturer in Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics and the University of Sydney School of Public Health.
Associate Professor and CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Ethics and Health Emergencies in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University
Assistant Professor, MSHRBC Scholar, Simon Fraser University.
Canada Research Chair and professor of international history and public policy at UBC. She directs the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions.