| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.36 |
| Liaison | Patricia Huynh |
| Submission Date | Dec. 10, 2024 |
University of Waterloo
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Patricia
Huynh Sustainability Projects Manager Sustainability Office |
Student sustainability research incentives
A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
The Water Institute manages several on-going scholarships for students doing research related to water: https://uwaterloo.ca/society-water-institute-graduate-students/news/2022-funding-opportunities
Faculty sustainability research incentives
A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
The University of Waterloo hosts multiple research institutes on campus that are directly focused on sustainability-related topics and issues. Research institutes receive central funding to support administrative activities, and provide support for interdisciplinary research projects, grant applications, knowledge mobilization, and conferences. At the University of Waterloo, these include:
- Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy: Supports researchers exploring sustainable energy through engineering, policy, planning, governance, and economics lenses, including areas such as smart energy systems, renewable energy, distribution and delivery systems, low-carbon fuels, energy storage, and energy conservation and efficiency. Projects occur from local scales to global.
- Water Institute: The Water Institute facilitates collaboration, supports excellence and promotes innovation in interdisciplinary water research and education. Today, more than 150 faculty members from all six University of Waterloo faculties and 19 departments are members of the Water Institute. Waterloo has emerged as an internationally recognized research institution known for excellence in a diversity of water-related areas, including surface and groundwater hydrology, mathematical modeling, drinking water and wastewater treatment, ecohydrology, aquatic ecology and toxicology, and water management and governance.
- Waterloo Climate Institute: brings together experts across disciplines to consider the impacts of climate change from every angle. A fresh approach, built on smart science, working toward achievable solutions. Established in 2008, WCI seeks to advance research on climate change by facilitating interdisciplinary research and providing relevant scientific information that empowers business, government and civil society to prepare and respond effectively to weather events and climate change.
- Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research: Includes collaborative research projects on vehicle lightweighting, hybrid and electric drive train systems, battery storage and smart vehicle technologies.
Some selected positive outcomes from these research institutes over the past three years include:
- Substantive research programs including in fisheries, wastewater remediation from mines, and water monitoring
- Launch of the Affordable Energy for Humanity global initiative to expand clean, affordable energy access
- Launch of Partners for Action and Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation to develop public partnerships and programs that advance flood resiliency and climate change adaptation
Recognition of interdisciplinary, transdisciplnary and multi-disciplinary research
A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
Policy 22 - Tenure and Promotion of Faculty Members, states that scholarship may take several equally valuable forms. One is the discovery of new knowledge, which may differ from discipline to discipline, and includes the generation of new concepts, ideas, principles and theories. A second form involves the innovative coordination, synthesis or integration of knowledge. This type of scholarship seeks and promotes understanding in a broader context by organizing knowledge in a new and useful way, by illustrating new relationships between the parts and the whole, by relating the past in a new way to the present and future, or by demonstrating new and significant patterns of meaning. Scholarship may also be observed in new and useful applications. Indeed, significant new applications of knowledge to the problems of society represent important scholarly contributions: https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-77
The Arts Research Office increasingly supports applications for interdisciplinary projects involving Arts researchers working with scholars in other Arts disciplines, other faculties at the University of Waterloo, and other universities. Two of their goals include building on existing research partnerships within and beyond the Faculty and pursuing further opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship; as well as maintain and consolidate the unconventional and uniquely interdisciplinary approach to “business” at Waterloo: https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/about/arts-strategic-plan-2023-2030/priorities-change/building-connection-through-interdisciplinarity
Additionally, the Waterloo Climate Institute's mission is to elevate and enhance the impact and excellence of innovative interdisciplinary research and education that empowers business, government and civil society to respond effectively to the climate crisis, by expanding interdisciplinary research in priority areas, and building capacity for inter- and transdisciplinary research and education: https://uwaterloo.ca/climate-institute/about/2022-2026-strategic-plan
The School of Optometry and Vision Science also has several objectives to help create equitable and resilient local and global economies through increasing our focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, in part through interdisciplinary collaboration with industry and academic partners nationally and internationally, and explore, promote and nurture interdisciplinary research between faculties and through engaging with the University’s Transformative Health Technologies initiative: https://uwaterloo.ca/optometry-vision-science/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/strategic-plan-2024-2029-final_0.pdf
Lastly, three university-wide task forces were formed in November 2019 to inform the implementation of the 2020-2025 strategic plan. The task forces focused on three cross-cutting areas: interdisciplinarity, innovation in entrepreneurship and commercialization, and health innovation: https://uwaterloo.ca/strategic-plan-action-and-progress/strategic-plan-task-forces
Library support
A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
The library has a variety of sustainability research guides that are compendiums created by librarians to assist users in finding and using information effectively. They provide recommendations for databases and key resources, search strategies, citation help, and research tips, all tailored to specific subjects or research needs.
Examples of reseach guides the Waterloo library has created:
- Architecture: https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/architecture
- Biology: https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/biology
- Earth & Environmental Sciences: https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/earthscience
- Indigenous Research: https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/IndigenousResearch
- Sustainability Management: https://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/susm
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.