Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS)
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

INRS has different ongoing programs encouraging students in multiple disciplines to conduct sustainability research, the programs are the following:
- Everyone at INRS receives a scholarship automatically (except for some MSc students in one specific joint program with another university), thus including all the programs focused on sustainable development, above all our water science programs.
- The INRS foundation: supports outreach activities and aims to enhance INRS decisions in the business and philanthropic communities. The foundation has embraced the SDGs as guiding principles for its scholarship program, which aims to support research within the student community. https://fondation.inrs.ca/finrs-1/scholarships. The foundation also provides numerous scholarships to support research, innovation, as well as diversity within scientific communities. https://fondation.inrs.ca/finrs-1/news-details/2023-08-24/bourses-rio-tinto-pour-la-diversite-en-sciences_152
- INRS offers an online training on SDGs to all students on its online course platform.
- INRS funds the ICEDA (Intersectoral Centre for Endocrine Disruptor Analysis) which is a Canadian research network serving government authorities, NGOs, the industry, and the population. Many INRS students work in that Centre. https://inrs.ca/en/research/research-chairs-groups-and-networks/find-research-chair-group-or-network/intersectoral-centre-for-endocrine-disrupto-analysis-iceda/
- During the 2023 INRS Scientific Days, two grants of $200 were awarded by the Scientific Direction for the best presentation and the best poster illustrating the links between research and one or more SDGs.
- INRS Sustainable Development Initiative Contest: aims at developing a culture of sustainability within INRS and can serve research too.
- INRS « Jeunes pousses » (Start-ups) program : designed to empower and support young researchers in their academic and professional development. Through mentorship, funding opportunities, workshops, networking, and collaboration, INRS provides its researchers with the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial skills and commercialize projects developed during their studies. https://inrs.ca/en/research/research-and-commercialization/start-ups/
- Furthermore, every research centre has a scientific program and INRS has an institutional scientific program revolving around five great priority challenges for society that all revolve around sustainable development (Evolution of the relationship between science and society, Development of the territory and natural resources, Response, and adaptation to climate change, Improving the well-being of populations and combating social inequalities and Digital and industrial transformations). All the research programs can be found here: https://inrs.ca/linrs/planification-strategique/programmes-scientifiques/. INRS' research programs all encompass sustainable development, guiding the students’ research in that direction.

Academic staff from multiple disciplines are encouraged conducting sustainability research through many means:
- INRS offers an asynchronous course on SDGs to all students on its online course platform.
- INRS’ contest ‘’Recognition of Emerging Research Groups’’ (https://inrs.ca/recherche/concours-interne-reconnaissance-des-regroupements-de-recherche-emergents/) aims to encourage collaboration for the implementation of scientific activities by leveraging INRS expertise and reputation. The policy establishes that an emerging research group must be able to develop various coordinated research plans and anticipate their efficient implementation in order to address priority research challenges that hold significant potential impact on scientific, technological, social, organizational and economic levels.
- INRS' institutional scientific program (https://inrs.ca/actualites/linrs-devoile-son-programme-scientifique-institutionnel-2021-2025/) outlines the direction research should take at INRS. The main challenges are all sutainability-related: Evolution of the relationship between science and society, Development of the territory and natural resources, Response and adaptation to climate change, Improving the well-being of populations and combating social inequalities and Digital and industrial transformations.
- Finally, the very structure of INRS encourages sustainability research because each of our four research centres is based on a thematic and multidisciplinary.

The "Standards and evaluation criteria for promotion of professors of INRS" (adopted by the Commission on Studies and Research) clearly identify "participation in interdisciplinary research projects" as a performance indicator for research during faculty evaluation. This document is for internal publication only and therefore cannot be shared publicly.

INRS, through the Specialized Documentation and Information Service (SDIS), provides a range of services to support research, including research on sustainable development. One of the four INRS centres is specialized in this field, and its library covers Water, Earth, and Environmental sciences.
Given its exclusive clientele mainly composed with researchers, the librarians provide a significant amount of individualized support. However, offering generic training in bibliographic or informational research as well as subsequent data management is also part of their regular tasks. Some of these training sessions are conducted in-person as part of credited courses, while others are offered online to reach a maximum number of users within their personal work context.
The SDIS collections are part of the Partnership of Quebec University Libraries (PBUQ) and can be located through the Sofia tool (https://inrs.on.worldcat.org). The Quebec City site, specialized in environment, also has access to federal collections in Earth sciences through a partnership agreement with Natural Resources Canada. Moreover, an interlibrary loan service allows obtaining any desired document that is not part of our collections. Several search tools are offered, some multidisciplinary (Scopus, Web of Science), and other more specialized (Greenfile, Scifinder-n, Geoindex). Several tools are more associated with research evaluation, enhancing the quality of the scientific process (Cabell’s Predatory Report, Journal Citation Report, SciVal, iThenticate). All databases available via SDIS are accessible through the Databases page (https://inrs.libguides.com/az.php).
Librarians can be reached through various means: in person, by phone, via Teams or Zoom, by email, or through a chat application available on the library portal (https://sdis.inrs.ca/). The team works closely in collaboration, allowing the development of useful and accessible expertise, even when physically separated. A professional is dedicated to research data management and sharing, whenever possible.
Furthermore, there are certain sustainability initiatives specific to the Water Warth Environment Centre Library based in Quebec City, where a librarian is exclusively assigned to support the Centre's activities :
- Loaning of materials for environmentally responsible events (reusable dishes, coffee machines, etc.)
- Management of a web bulletin board and a newsletter to disseminate internal community information, promote local events or scientific environmental news, etc. (http://babillard.ete.inrs.ca/)
- Recovery/reuse of badges for events
- Participation, in partnership with the 490 Green Committee and/or the Geological Survey of Canada, in awareness-raising activities (Earth Day, International Water Day, Overshoot Day, etc.)
- Collection and recycling of used batteries as part of the provincial program "Appel@recyler"