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Science and Research committee I concur with both of my colleagues and suggest that resourcing the whole system so that it's adequately able to support the kinds of excellence and research that need to be done, across all the different groups and regions doing the research, would absolutely be the best-case scenario for all participants.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee I echo the devastation of the wildfires. As you know, a number of lives were lost last year as well in the firefighter ranks. We were working directly with the B.C. Wildfire Service at the time and felt very deeply the loss of their members. That happened last summer. It's become very much an emotional topic for us at our institution, so thank you for that.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee At a smaller or mid-sized institution, we identify pillars of research priorities, similar to the larger institutions. As an institution, we will absolutely invest in those research areas. For us, it's certainly one of our research areas as well. Another one is indigenous health.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee When we think about making investments in research, we're often thinking about the capacity that's built, in particular, around tri-council funding. One of the other members brought up, for example, the Canada research chair program. The opportunity of having a Canada research chair makes me think about Dr.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee Absolutely, we're looking at a wide variety of areas. We're actually thinking of it as wildfire studies. We are thinking about training, education, research and innovation. We are thinking about not only wildfire science but also community and social resilience. How does a wildfire impact a community, and how does a community respond to a wildfire?
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee It's such an important topic right now federally and for the interior of B.C. in particular, which has experienced the absolutely devastating impacts of forest fires over the last couple of years. I'm really pleased to say that TRU has decided that wildfires are an absolute priority of our institution.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee TRU, as I alluded to in my opening remarks, is very much a growing research institution. At this point, we've been quite successful in getting tri-council and provincial funding. We are really developing on the innovation and IP front, and we are developing our industrial partnerships.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee That's an excellent question. Lots of different opportunities could be put forward to start to address some of those pieces. Some of the ideas we've come up with to this point think about how the scoring system works within the tri-council. Is it most appropriate to put a lot of weight on, for example, previous funding success?
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee That's an excellent question. It really goes back to my opening remarks. There are opportunities for us to increase the system and create specific programs that might benefit smaller institutions where it is a little harder to break in. Smaller or mid-size institutions like ours are oftentimes looking at recruitment from, for example, mid-career researchers or individuals who are coming in from practice—individuals with long histories in health, for example, who become health researchers.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee Let me start by saying that I want to echo and acknowledge the points put forward by my colleagues Dr. Pexman and Dr. McCauley. It's really a process of funding the system and ensuring that we're able to provide funding across all of the different priorities, including faculty research, student research and research in indigenous and other specific priority areas.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee This goes back to our opening remarks, including those made by Dr. McCauley and the five points that were brought up by Dr. Pexman around increasing the funding going into the system. Right now, there's not enough to go around, so we end up seeing competition between institutions—things we don't want to see.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee On this question, I would reflect back on Dr. Pexman's comments about how there is no real quota with respect to tri-council funding. It's not based on the number of students that we have as an institution. It's really based on the applications that are put forward by the researchers within our institutions.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner
Science and Research committee Weyt-kp xwexwéytep. Shannon Wagner ren skwekwst. Good morning. My name is Shannon Wagner, and I am the vice-president of research at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. Today, I am here proudly representing small and mid-sized universities that are pushing the boundaries of knowledge to address regional, provincial and national research questions and priorities.
April 11th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Shannon Wagner