Professor Elaine Biddiss awarded Discovery Horizons Grant for interdisciplinary health technology research

Dr. Elaine Biddiss, associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and senior scientist at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, has been awarded a Discovery Horizons Grant to support the development of adaptable, inclusive technologies that improve access to health and learning opportunities for children with disabilities. 

Valued at nearly $500,000 over several years, the Discovery Horizons program is a tri-agency initiative administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). It supports innovative research projects that integrate or transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries to advance knowledge in the natural sciences and engineering. 

Dr. Biddiss’s funded project, titled Multidomain dynamic difficulty adjustment and performance assessment in serious games, aims to design a modular framework that allows serious games to dynamically adapt to children’s unique physical, cognitive, and sensory abilities, similar to that of a skilled clinician or teacher would. The goal is to empower children, including those with disabilities, to engage more meaningfully in therapies, education, and play through personalized, accessible digital experiences. 

The research will combine technical innovation with extensive collaboration. Dr. Biddiss and her interdisciplinary team will co-design solutions with children, families, clinicians, and educators. The framework will be tested across three existing games developed by her lab: 

• R2Play, which supports concussion recovery,

• Bootle Band, a music education tool for young children with disabilities, and

• Bootle Blast, a motion-based game for motor learning.

The project is poised to have lasting impact both within clinical settings and beyond. Research findings will be shared broadly, with translation into practice at Holland Bloorview and potential commercial deployment through industry partner Pearl Interactives.