Led by Project Director Prof. Richard Saunders of York University, the project team includes 6 co-applicants, 14 collaborators, and over 20 research assistants spread across sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, and Canada.

The Project Director and co-applicants provide the partnership’s core intellectual leadership, identifying key research and knowledge gaps, overseeing research design and supervising the project’s research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The collaborators contribute specialist knowledge and expertise, and participate integrally in the design and implementation of specific research projects. Research Assistants in Africa and Canada will be recruited and trained to provide primary and desktop research support in the project’s main research phase. Drawing on the team’s research and advocacy links with regional networks of mining stakeholders and government policy processes, the project seeks to actively engage with national and regional debates by providing new evidence and insights generated by research.