University of Victoria
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

See attached file.

At the University of Victoria, there are many faculty and staff engaged in sustainability-related research. This inventory identifies researchers working in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and health related fields. The total number of potential faculty researcher was determined based on a report submitted to the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education for 2015, which represented the most recent data. University of Victoria Research has an online database of researchers which contains a list of individual researchers on campus and classifies them by expertise area. Each researcher has a brief bio accompanied by their research focuses and accomplishments, as well as associated database keywords. This does not include graduate students or staff due to the accessibility of their research not being as readily available. To identify the researchers who were doing sustainability-related work, the entire list of researchers was arranged by keyword. If a keyword or key term had any linkages to sustainability, the researchers that fell into those categories were added to an Excel spreadsheet. Examples of categories include: Climate change, business sustainability, energy, environment, environment and sustainability, land use, marine ecology, natural resources, sustainability, sustainable energy systems, sustainable development, etc. After all of the information was compiled, duplicates were removed. In addition to the online database, research who were identified in the last STARS submission and who were not identified through the online database of research were reviewed via their faculty bio page and/or their individual websites. Those were not doing researching at the UVic between 2014 and 2017 were removed from the list. This includes those who had retired, those who had taken positions elsewhere and those who were no longer listed on their faculty pages. Finally, the remaining list of ~130 faculty members were emailed asking if they had over the last three years conducted sustainability research. The definition that UVic used to define sustainability research in 2013 was provided to them and they were asked to opt out of being identified as sustainability researcher if they felt their recent research did not fit the definition.

Researchers at UVic are working on the many different facets of sustainability. This inventory identifies researchers in working in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and health related fields. A large number of sustainability researchers are found in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and this is partly as a result of the success of the interdisciplinary Integrated Energy Systems research centre that serves to engage engineers with other researchers. School of Environmental Studies also portion a large number of researchers identified, as does the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, as well as Department of Geography, Department of Biology, and the Faculty of Law. These are sustainability research hot spots, but sustainability research is wide spread across the institution. More than 60% of the departments have at least one sustainability researcher identified.