The program will choose a new theme each year, like “AI and health,” and fund a dozen or more new scholars to take interdisciplinary approaches to that issue, the University of Toronto said in its announcement. The graduate students will be funded with $80,000 a year for four years and will be expected to work with each other, other students and professors doing related research and external partners in government or private industry. (The Logic)

Talking point: A wealthy family that wants to stay anonymous is funding half the cost of the plan, the announcement said. A recurring problem for Canadian higher education has been that funding for graduate students here doesn’t match what’s available at universities elsewhere—amid stagnant overall budgets that have been further hurt by cuts to study permits for foreign students. The federal government has recently funded efforts to recruit professors and boosted graduate scholarships. 

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