The Citizen Lab, an independent Internet monitoring research laboratory based at the University of Toronto, has become the first Canadian winner of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Leadership. The announcement of the $1 million award was made Wednesday (February 19).
For these awards, the Chicago-based foundation does not seek or accept nominations. It provides an organization with up to $1 million, depending on the size of its budget, “to create endowments or innovation funds, increase their capacity, and upgrade technology and physical infrastructure.”
The Foundation described the Citizen Lab as “an interdisciplinary laboratory that operates at the intersection of human rights, global security, and the digital world.”
“The power and relevance of The Citizen Lab’s work has been illustrated in groundbreaking reports that exposed monitoring activities and privacy breaches by governments and other entities, including a report exposing Chinese malware, or malicious software, that infiltrated high-profile political, economic, and media organizations in 103 countries.”
“The MacArthur Award is a game-changer for the Citizen Lab,” said Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert. “It will enable us to continue to work independent of government and corporate interests, and not be afraid to tackle the tough problems hidden beneath the surface of the Internet that deserve the public’s attention.”
More information:
MacArthur Foundation statement on The Citizen Lab – here
CBC News – Citizen Lab wins Canada’s 1st $1M MacArthur award – here
Globe and Mail – U of T’s Citizen Lab wins Canada’s first MacArthur Foundation award – here
MacArthur Foundation website – www.macfound.org
Citizen Lab website – citizenlab.org
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.