Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 60.20
Liaison Jonathan Rausseo
Submission Date March 29, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Ottawa
AC-10: Support for Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Catherine Legault
Assistant Director, Graduate Studies
Institute of the Environment
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct research in sustainability? :
Yes

A brief description of the student research program, including the incentives provided and any positive outcomes during the previous three years:
There are also several centres or institutes on campus involved in environmental research. Of particular relevance is the Institute of the Environment (IE) and the Institute of Population Health (discussed below). Others with some involvement in environmental research include: the Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics; Institute of Women’s Studies; Centre for International Policy Studies; Centre for Research on Environmental Microbiology; IUCN Academy of Environmental Law; as well as the Centre for Environment Law and Global Sustainability, Institute for Science, Society and Policy. All these programs offer scholarships and bursaries to students.

Does the institution have a program to encourage faculty from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct research in sustainability topics?:
Yes

A brief description of the faculty research program, including the incentives provided and any positive outcomes during the previous three years:
The University enables staff to conduct research by attracting or creating research chairs and by supporting the various centres or institutes on campus involved in environmental research. Research chairs include; Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health, and Global Development Policy Canada Research Chair in Catalysis Science for Energy Applications Canada Research Chair in Toxicology and Environmental Health Canada Research Chair in Environmental Economics etc… Centres and Institutes include; the Institute of the Environment (IE) the Institute of Population Health the Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics the Centre for Environment Law and Global Sustainability etc…

Has the institution published written policies and procedures that give positive recognition to interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research during faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s support for interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research, including any positive outcomes during the previous three years:
The University of Ottawa offers an annual award to recognize outstanding contributions to interdisciplinary research collaboration. In addition to discipline-based graduate programs, the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS) offers also unique interdisciplinary programs which can suit your particular needs. That the functions of an interdisciplinary program director be akin to those of a departmental chair in the following regards: – participates in hiring, tenure and promotion recommendations, and – recommends courses to be offered, all in accord with collective agreement considerations.

Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research, including any positive outcomes during the previous three years:
The Office of Sustainability has developed a list of undergraduate and graduate courses that relate to sustainability. The library shared details about collections in this area with them which include resources to support the curricula for all of these courses and our librarians maintain close ties with faculty in order to ensure this. The course list highlights the extent to which the study of sustainability crosses all disciplines. This is reflected in the library’s collection and the resources they provide. For example, the library offers a research guide specifically on Environmental Science but there are a number of other research guides that also touch on aspects of sustainability. The library’s research guide for Company Information includes a section on environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects, highlighting relevant resources such as Sustainalytics, a database that rates companies in terms of their ESG behaviour. The research guide for Philosophy includes a section focusing on resources relating to Bioethics. The Brian Dickson Law Library maintains a current list of new titles relating to environmental law. Access to a full list of library research guides can be found at :http://biblio.uottawa.ca/en/research-help/research-guides-and-librarians. Use search keyword “sustainability” to get an idea of the coverage of this topic. Librarians have also provided occasional instruction for students in the program at the Institute of the Environment. In 2016, the librarian responsible for Environmental Sciences undertook an analysis of journal collection for the IQAP for the Phd program in environmental sustainability. Using Journal Citation Reports (JCR), she examined title lists by impact factor and compared them with our holdings at the Library. We found that our collection included 96-100% of the titles in environmental sustainability in the upper quartile. Given the multidisciplinary nature of environmental sustainability, five additional subject categories were examined (Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Law, Economics and Public Administration) and similar results were obtained.

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Library information provided by Leslie Weir

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.