Dr. Yana Yunusova Receives 2024-25 Connaught Innovation Award

By: Jessica Boafo

Dr. Yana Yunusova

Dr. Yana Yunusova has been awarded a 2024–25 Connaught Innovation Award in recognition of her impactful research. The award celebrates projects with the potential to make a meaningful difference in society, a fitting description of Dr. Yunusova’s work on VirtualSLP, an automated management platform for diseases affecting speech, swallowing, and breathing.

She is one of eighteen University of Toronto researchers to receive this competitive award this year, which provides, “one-time seed funding to accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies that address pressing global challenges”. Funded by the Connaught Fund, Canada’s largest internal university research funding program, this award reflects the strength of innovation emerging from the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and its faculty.

Dr. Yunusova’s research focuses on understanding how neurological damage impacts speech production, as well as developing technologies to assess and treat motor speech disorders of neurological origin. This funding will undoubtedly support the advancement of speech therapy tools that are not only evidence-based but also responsive to evolving societal needs.

In addition to being an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Dr. Yunusova is recognized through her leadership across various academic and research appointments such as, Associate Scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Senior Scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Associate Director at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute. She also directs both the Speech Production Lab at the University of Toronto and the Bulbar Function Lab at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, key hubs for interdisciplinary collaboration in communication sciences.

The Department of Speech-Language Pathology congratulates Dr. Yunusova on this well-deserved recognition and looks forward to the outcomes of her groundbreaking work, which promises to make a lasting impact in the field of communication sciences.