First Winners of Governor General’s Innovation Awards
OTTAWA—The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General is pleased to announce the inaugural winners of the Governor General’s
Ontario
ODARA: The Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment
Nominated by:
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2025
About the Innovation
ODARA is the world’s first data-driven tool for assessing the risk of future intimate partner violence based on specific risk factors in domestic incidents. Developed and expanded through a 25-year academic-police partnership, ODARA helps front-line responders and corrections systems to identify the most dangerous cases, enhance safety planning and efficiently allocate resources. It is used widely in Canada and the United States and has influenced intimate partner violence risk appraisal internationally.
About the Innovator
In 2000, psychologist Dr. Zoe Hilton, fellow researchers at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, and Chief Superintendent Kate Lines of the Ontario Provincial Police shared concerns that the criminal justice system was failing to protect victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Some complex tools could predict violence risk, but only after criminal conviction and sentencing, as they relied on in-depth mental health information. Thus, victims remained vulnerable during investigations.
