Strategic Areas of Development in Research
The University of Ottawa is at a crucial stage in its development as a research-intensive institution. Its size and breadth – comprising a wide range of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs – as well as its location in the nation’s capital, its cosmopolitan population, its bilingualism and, above all, its strong commitment to research, create a vigorous and dynamic research environment within and among all faculties and disciplines. The high quality and sheer quantity of research in discipline-based areas, as well as in interdisciplinary research groups are evidenced by the dramatic growth in research funding, and by the national and international dissemination and recognition of research results.
In its strategic plan, Vision 2010, the University pledges to increase research activities, with an aim to place the University among Canada’s top five in research. This goal is not only important for the reputation and status of the University, but also for the University’s ability to fulfill its mandate to further knowledge and contribute to the common good.
To achieve this goal, research must continue to develop on three planes. Sustained disciplinary and interdisciplinary research must continue, often in the form of long-term projects that contribute to our knowledge in a given field; new and potentially significant areas of research must be identified and nurtured; and strategic areas of development, identifying a small number of present priorities, must be established.
This document addresses the third of these requirements. While the University continues to foster and support basic and applied research in all of its domains, Vision 2010 calls upon the University to review and renew the strategic areas of development to include emerging fields. To this end, the University has identified a number of key areas that are critically and strategically important provincially, nationally and globally. While these strategic areas cover only a portion of the numerous and varied research interests of our researchers, their interdisciplinary nature invites participation from members of all faculties at the University.
Areas identified as research priorities can expect to receive attention in the form of funding and development, but they also have important responsibilities: to attract significant external funding in the form of grants, contracts, donations and external partnerships; to devote considerable resources to the training of students, particularly at the graduate level; and to disseminate knowledge widely within the academic community, to policy-makers as appropriate, and to the broader public.