Strategic Objectives for Research

ECU has identified three Strategic Objectives and corresponding pathways to achieve these objectives that will drive forward key initiatives for researchers across our academic community.

Strategic Objective 1: Enhance Research Capacity and Access

Building capacity for new research programs and projects will require additional investment.

By focusing on enhancing opportunities for researchers to be supported through grants, administrative support, expert guidance on compliance and reporting, policies that can unlock efficient and impactful systems, and more robust access to our renowned technical facilities and expertise, we envision a future where faculty, staff, and students are continually engaging in research across disciplines and through new forms and practices.

It is also important to acknowledge that this plan’s contribution is part of a multi-faceted approach across the institution that are taken up in ECU’s Strategic Plan and the EDI Action Plan to addressing EDI, access, and enhanced capacity.

The ECU Library also plays a key role in strengthening our research capacity by providing an overarching system of support for all research priorities, including access to physical and electronic resources, interlibrary loans, institutional archives, and research assistance by a team of information professionals.

The Library’s experience and commitment to information literacy and information management skills, alongside innovative and creative approaches to accessibility, discoverability, and care, place it as a key area of research support infrastructure.

A key tenet of strengthening our research capacity is through the development of support systems that dynamically respond to the needs of our community as they arise.

We also recognize the need to remove barriers to engagement in research in all ways that they are experienced towards promoting and enabling equitable access to resources and opportunities.

We know that an underrepresentation of equity-denied voices among researchers is a missed opportunity to embrace a rich array of departure points, epistemologies, and models of practice.

To address this, we will work to define success based the guiding principles we have outlined in this document and on the strength of other ways of knowing and diversity across our community.

ECU’s commitment to access and equity also means acknowledging that colonial structures and values are built into granting and awards systems and can be inherent in some research practices, and that the practices themselves have, at times, been historical instruments of colonization.

In our active work on decolonization, ECU can reimagine research practices driven by meaningful inclusiveness, where emergent, Indigenous, and transdisciplinary knowledge and perspectives are all supported.

    • Develop staff capacity in the Research and Industry Office to ensure research activity can be fully and meaningfully supported across the pre-award and post-award stage
    • Identify new resources to encourage new research awards, grant opportunities, and investments in Research Assistantships
    • Create designated research awards and grants for faculty from equity-denied communities
    • Focus recruitment and retention efforts for students and HQPs from equity-denied communities
    • Increase knowledge mobilization activities such as publishing, conferences, symposia, and workshops, focused on translation, transfer and application hosted within and beyond our community
    • Foster new support structures to enable artist researchers to advance exhibition-based models of display and knowledge mobilization
    • Develop greater access opportunities to ECU’s technical facilities in support of research projects
    • Foster more robust collaborative opportunities between researchers and technical staff
    • Generate clearer pathways for innovative and transformative research projects in concert with new developments in technical facilities and expertise

    Strategic Objective 2: Create Excellent Training Opportunities

    ECU’s approach to research empowers new means of production, employment, creative and aesthetic expression, and culminates in a wealth of opportunities for its graduates.

    Many of our students have opportunities to participate in exciting, cutting-edge research projects at ECU and we see potential for increasing the number of undergraduate and graduate students engaged in research initiatives.

    Applied research, innovation, and entrepreneurship have also been embedded across disciplines and Faculties, encouraging hands-on, experiential learning opportunities for all students and extensive participation opportunities across inter-institutional networks.

    Graduate and undergraduate students benefit through direct involvement in research projects under the leadership and guidance of faculty researchers.

    In turn, researchers benefit from a diverse talent pool to support and drive forward their projects. Students access projects and opportunities through ECU Research Centres and their collaborative industry projects, as well as through Emily Carr University faculty who pursue practice-based research in clusters and collaborations.

    Emily Carr integrates research and scholarship across program areas to enrich educational programs and foster next generation researchers and creative practitioners.

    Ensuring excellence for all training experiences will require continued and expanded investment in opportunities for students and HQP to participate in research projects and alignment with policy frameworks designed to support student employment.

    We will also create new opportunities for recognition and celebration of student research alongside creating more pathways for mentorship for BIPOC students in research projects.

    We are committed to promoting a culture that engenders profound confidence in its students so they can step into any creative, professional, or industrial sector and create meaningful impact.

      • Create new and enhanced graduate student training opportunities supervised by faculty (e.g. research-driven mentorships, experiential and work-related learning, professional development training for emerging researchers, increased number of Research Assistantships for graduate students)
      • Foster partnerships that result in national and international grants to enhance collaborations and the training of graduate and undergraduate students that ultimately launches more of their research globally
      • Develop new Research Awards for excellence in Undergraduate and Graduate research
      • Expand work-integrated-learning opportunities through research and industry partnerships and Mitacs awards
      • Identify targeted funding to support BIPOC student mentorship
      • Prioritize publishing opportunities for students through internal journals and imprints and funding for publishing costs associated with peer-reviewed publications

      Strategic Objective 3: Strengthen Partnerships and Collaborations

      ECU is dedicated to facilitating mutually-rewarding research and partnerships with community organizations, citizens’ associations, government, and industry partners across art, design, science, technology, humanities, and health – both locally and globally.

      These partnerships help fuel experiential learning and professional practice, they develop and enhance research culture, and they expose ECU to novel ideas, practices, challenges, and opportunities to learn and apply new knowledge and practices.

      The university is committed to strengthening existing partnerships with both the private and public sector, while also developing new opportunities for outreach, collaboration, knowledge creation and exchange.

      For our students and HQP, we know that transformative outcomes are borne from partnerships and opportunities to access external learning experiences that can drive strong post-graduation employment opportunities and placement.

      By continually identifying new ways in which we can use our strength as one of the world’s top art and design schools to build relationships with industry, we will continue to advocate for the significance of art and design across the innovation ecosystem.

      ECU will also continue to enable its researchers to build meaningful and impactful partnerships by further developing our capacity to connect people, organizations, companies, and public bodies, proactively bridge-building, pairing, matchmaking, and relationship-building.

        • Develop strategic networks with other post-secondary institutions to accelerate research innovation
        • Enhance capacity of the Research and Industry Office to communicate with external partners through streamlining processes and building media assets
        • Host semi-annual exploratory meetings/think-tanks with researchers and industry and community organizations to engage in early-stage discussions
        • Establish incentives for cross-disciplinary and cross-faculty collaboration in close consultation with all stakeholders
        • Design new in-take processes to effectively and efficiently pair industry needs with researcher expertise
        • Initiate policy reviews to support new collaborative research structures and typologies at the university
        • Leverage international partnerships to strategically develop and deploy seed funding for international projects
        • Deliver additional support to proven programs and research projects that have built effective partnerships to advance strategic opportunities