Fall 2026 CARE Applied Learning Projects

CARE’s Applied Learning Projects at bring together small, interdisciplinary groups of graduate students to work directly on pressing climate issues. In Fall 2026, students can choose between two distinct opportunities at U of T:

• A short, intensive workshop in September led by Dr. Marc Ringel (Sciences Po), examining Europe’s clean energy transition through a Canadian comparative lens.
• A semester-long collaborative project (September - December) with Professor Kariũki Kĩrigia (School of Environment, U of T) and a partner in Kenya, focused on climate resilience in the coffee sector. 

Across both projects, participants will strengthen their research, analysis and collaboration skills.

Learn more about each project, eligibility, and how to apply below.

Instructor: Dr. Marc Ringel, Chairholder, European Chair for Sustainable Development and Climate Transitions (Sciences Po)
Participants: Approximately 20 graduate students (working in groups of 2–3)
Eligibility: Masters students at the University of Toronto & University of Guelph
Dates: September 10–18, 2026
Application Deadline: July 25, 2026
Stipend Upon Completion: $150

Overview

The European Union (EU) aims to decarbonize the EU by 2050, while maintaining economic competitiveness and resilience. This clean transition is unfolding in an increasingly unstable and contested global environment. Climate policy is no longer only a question of emissions targets and technology deployment; it is closely connected to energy security, industrial resilience, critical resources, geopolitical positioning, but also internal social cohesion. The EU has responded to the global challenges with a rapidly evolving policy agenda, moving from the 2019-2024 European Green Deal to the Industrial Clean Deal, a concept that bundles competitiveness, resilience and climate ambition. The transition is multi-faceted, covering renewable energy and energy efficiency frameworks, building renovation policies, critical minerals, and just transition aspects, while trying to coordinate governance across the 27 Member States to align national and European action. At the same time, Canada and the EU have agreed to deepen cooperation through their Green Alliance, creating a strong basis for mutual learning on how democratic, advanced economies can accelerate decarbonisation while protecting competitiveness, affordability, and social legitimacy. This workshop invites students in Canada to examine European clean transition challenges through a comparative lens. Rather than treating the EU as a model to be copied, participants will ask how European policy dilemmas look when viewed from Canada: Which problems are shared? Where do Canadian federal, provincial, Indigenous, industrial, or resource-policy perspectives reveal blind spots in the European debate? Where might European approaches offer useful lessons for Canada? And where might Canada have institutional, technological, or political solutions from which the EU could learn? 

The workshop is built around draft chapters from the forthcoming Handbook on Clean Transitions in Europe (Edward Elgar, 2027), edited by Dr. Marc Ringel. These chapters are authored by leading policy experts and provide in-depth insights into key areas of EU climate and energy policy. Each chapter serves as a starting point for critical analysis. Topics covered include the geopolitical dimensions of the clean transition, the European Green Deal, the Clean Industrial Deal, renewable energy development, energy efficiency, building policy, the just transition, governance frameworks, and resource management, among others. Students are not expected to summarize these materials. Instead, they will use them as a foundation to engage in structured comparison, critical reflection, and policy-oriented analysis. Following admission, students will sign up for a topic aligned with one handbook chapter and work collaboratively in small groups of two to three. The task is not to summarise the topic, but to use it as a basis for structured comparison and critical reflection: identify the core European policy challenge, assess the logic and limits of the EU response, and develop a Canadian perspective on similar challenges, possible solutions for Canadian policy debates, and Canadian experiences or practices that could inform European clean transition policy.

Format and Structure

Students will have one week to develop their topics and present them in short 10-15 minute presentations. The presentations will be clustered topically, allowing students to follow up on the presentation by a cluster discussion. Tentatively, the following clusters are envisaged

Cluster I: Green competitiveness?

1. Clean industrial deal: Can industrial resilience and deep decarbonisation genuinely reinforce one another?
2. Climate policies: How can we set up ambitious climate policies without compromising economic competitiveness?

Cluster II: How to address the clean energy challenges?

3. Energy security: How can we increase the resilience of our energy systems without falling into strategic dependencies?
4. Renewables: How should societies balance rapid deployment with affordable prices? 
5. Energy efficiency: How to balance effectiveness and technical complexity?

Cluster III: Governments as change agents to develop new markets?

6. Critical minerals: Can the clean transition be accelerated without creating new forms of dependency? 
7. Bioeconomy: Should governments mingle in developing new economic sectors and if so what should be their role as transformation agent?
8. Green hydrogen: How to solve the “chicken and egg” problem of scaling up demand and supply at the same time and with least costs? 

Cluster IV: Change without overburdening society?

9. Transforming societies: How can we safeguard public support for ambitious transformation policies and which stakeholder groups seem promising as change agents?
10. Just transition: What makes a transition genuinely “just,” and who gets to define fairness? 
11. Building renovation: How can we increase the renovation rate without overburdening home owners and tenants?

These clusters are designed to encourage cross-group dialogue and highlight connections between different dimensions of the clean transition.

Expectations

Participants are expected to engage actively and thoughtfully throughout this project. This includes attending both the launch session on September 10th (hybrid 4pm-6pm) and the full day in person workshop in Toronto on September 18th, meaningful collaboration within their group, and preparation of a clear and focused presentation.

On the full day workshop on September 18th, students should be prepared to contribute to discussions by asking critical questions, offering comparative insights, and engaging with the perspectives of their peers. 

At its core, the workshop seeks to foster a deeper understanding of how different policy systems approach shared challenges, and how comparative thinking can inform more effective and inclusive climate strategies. This project offers a unique opportunity to engage directly with emerging policy research prior to publication and to work closely with expert-informed materials. It provides a space to develop analytical and presentation skills, while also gaining exposure to cutting-edge debates in European climate policy. It encourages students to think beyond national policy frameworks and consider how international collaboration—particularly through initiatives like the EU–Canada Green Alliance—can support more effective, equitable, and resilient clean transitions.

Each team will submit:

• A findings summary of about 500 words
• A slide deck analysing the challenges and providing policy recommendations in a comparative EU-Canadian perspective
• A 10-15 minute group presentation and participation in the cluster discussion

Group summaries and slides will be showcased on the websites of CARE and Science Po’s European Chair for Sustainable Development and Climate Transition.

Estimated student commitment: approximately 25 hours over 1 week

Application

This workshop is intended for graduate students with a strong interest in climate policy, energy transitions, public policy, political economy, sustainability governance, or international cooperation. Students from a wide range of disciplines are encouraged to apply, including—but not limited to—public policy, environmental studies, political science, economics, geography, and international relations. Diverse perspectives are highly valued, particularly those that bring regional, sectoral, or interdisciplinary insights into the discussion.

Instructor: Prof. Kariũki Kĩrigia
Participants: 6 students
Eligibility: Master’s students at the University of Toronto, University of Guelph, UBC and Sciences Po
Dates: September - December, 2026
Application Deadline: July 25, 2026
Stipend Upon Completion: $750

Project Description

This CARE Applied Learning Project will involve graduate students from the CARE partner institutions, and the Ruwawa Coffee Farm, a local partner based in Kenya, in the Fall 2026 semester. The students will undertake two distinct but related projects on the coffee industry in Kenya and its global connections:

1. The first objective is to establish ways that smallholder coffee farmers can engage in regenerative agriculture built around circular household economies, and how the tenets of this approach can be scaled up at the national and regional levels for adoption by smallholder farmers both within and outside the coffee sector.
2. The second objective is to design a locally developed and globally recognized coffee certification standard in collaboration with smallholder coffee farmers. The students will explore existing certification standards in the coffee industry in the world and establish their strengths and gaps, and effectiveness in their impacts on coffee farmers in the African context, to propose an inclusive, participatory, locally designed certification standard.

The students will work virtually in groups of three to focus on these two topics and will be expected to commit 3-4 hours per week from September to December 2026. There will be bi-weekly meetings and check-ins with the course instructor and project partner held virtually at an agreed-upon time favourable to the different time zones. At the end of the project, each group will generate a research report whose key findings will be published on the CARE website. Students will be strongly encouraged to apply to attend the CARE Conference in Vancouver in 2027 where they may have the opportunity to present their findings. In addition, the course instructor will work with the students and the partner to draft scholarly publications from the two projects and a comprehensive policy brief for engaging policymakers in Kenya. 

The focus topics will include regenerative agriculture, circular economies, food security, biodiversity conservation, climate change, and environmental justice rooted in African Indigenous ways of knowing and relating with the land.

Application

Students should apply by sending their CV and a statement of interest (1–1.5 pages, single-spaced) to Professor Kariũki Kĩrigia at kariuki.kirigia@utoronto.ca. Please cc care.munkschool@utoronto.ca and include “CARE Applied Learning Project Application” in the subject line of your email