UNews - VP research

Business plans earn support

trevor.kenney — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:46:29 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students Aamna Zia and Richard Jokinen took home some cash to support their new business ventures as this year's finalists in the Southventure Business Plan competition.

Supported by Dr. Dan Weeks, VP research, and the Office of Research and Innovation Services, the applicants were challenged to convince a panel of judges that their business plan has merit and is worthy of a cash investment.

Aamna Zia, left, and Richard Jokinen, right, were the recent finalists in the Southventure Business Plan competition. Each finalist earned a cash investment toward the establishment of a small business.

Jokinen received $6,000 as the first place winner. He's a current management student and founding partner in Mexspace.com, the first segmented dating/social networking community, and what he hopes is the future website of choice for young Mexicans around the world. With more than 140 million Mexicans worldwide, Jokinen believes that the website is viable because Mexico is a huge market, and does not currently have its own dating or social website community.

Zia, a management student currently taking classes at the U of L Calgary Campus, took second place and $2,000 for her work on CitizenBridge, a web-based citizen engagement system that gathers information about government resources into one location. It offers an opportunity for the public and government representatives alike to join in conversations about issues of public interest.

The panel of reviewers and judges have more than a century of business experience among them, and put the entrants through their paces at a final presentation in late February.

This story first appeared in the March 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

U of L leads way in establishing ACCRU

trevor.kenney — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:44:35 +0000

This story by Léo Charbonneau appeared in the Sept. 12 edition of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Affairs. It is re-posted here with their permission.

There is a new university group in Canada: the Alliance of Canadian Comprehensive Research Universities.

Created at a meeting in Ottawa in June, ACCRU brings together the vice-presidents, research, of the smaller comprehensive universities in Canada that have "a strong commitment to research," said Dan Weeks, vice-president, research, at ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

The creation of the alliance is in part a reaction to the group known as the U15, which advocates on behalf of what it calls "Canada's 15 leading research universities."

A graphical representation of ACCRU.

That group, previously called the G10 and then the G13 before it expanded to its current 15 members, has given those institutions "a strong unified voice for consultation and lobbying activities on their behalf," said Dr. Weeks.

However, ACCRU is not meant to be a lobbying group, he stressed. Rather, the aim of the new alliance is to discuss the challenges and issues that these smaller universities face, and to pool resources and best practices with like-minded colleagues.

"If we do have advice and things that have policy implications, the route would be through either AUCC [Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada] or our individual presidents," he said.

Dr. Weeks set the ball rolling for the new group with a letter he sent to colleagues this past January.

The letter reads in part: "There are a number of unique challenges associated with conducting world-class research at Canada's small institutions. Effectively meeting these challenges and ensuring that research investments made in our institutions are of maximal benefit to all Canadians prompts me to suggest that Canada's 'small' research universities might benefit by informal discussion of the merits of forming a group or forum. This would give us the opportunity to discuss and react collectively to issues we face now or that will arise."

The response was "absolutely fantastic," said Dr. Weeks. "Everybody was excited about getting together." The respondents agreed on a date and venue for the event, and of the 25 universities initially contacted, 19 sent representatives to the Ottawa gathering – in most cases, either the vice-president or associate VP research.

While stressing that membership in ACCRU is "meant to be inclusive," Dr. Weeks acknowledged he had to come up with "some sort of algorithm" to choose who to invite.

He and William Bridger, a former vice-president at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Western Ontario, devised a plan. First, they said the university had to describe itself as a comprehensive university.

Second, they did a rough calculation of the percentage of tri-council funding that each university receives, and "there was a pretty obvious breakpoint, and so we invited everybody below that line," said Dr. Weeks.

But he added, "I really wouldn't put too much stock in this 'who's in, who's out' type of thing. It's really more about the scope of your operations and would you benefit from being at these discussions."

The attendees to the Ottawa meeting "talked a lot about faculty recruitment and, related to that, the general perception of small universities by the public and by other institutions," said Dr. Weeks.

They also discussed research ethics, infrastructure, animal care, research centres and institutes, contracts, "and all the things that we have to fulfill in terms of policies and regulations" but often with far fewer resources than the larger universities, "so we have to be more clever about how we get some of these accomplished."

Katherine Schultz, vice-president research at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Prince Edward Island, attended the meeting and said the conversations "were frank and open." She noted that, unlike vice-presidents, academic, there is no national meeting for VPs research, so this group "fills a gap that many of us perceived. … It's a forum for information exchange that didn't exist."

André Manseau, dean of research at Université du Quebec en Outaouais, said it was "very enriching" for him to have his colleagues share their experiences. "We face many similar issues," he said. "Our offices are of relatively modest size and we don't have a lot of specialized personnel."

The ACCRU members agreed to meet again in Ottawa in early December, before the annual Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's leaders meeting (of senior university administrators who serve as points of contact with the council).

The alliance also created three working groups that will report at the December meeting: one looking at best practices, one on governance of the group itself, and a third tasked to craft a mission statement.

Universities represented at the ACCRU meeting in June:

* Acadia ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Bishop's ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Brandon ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Brock ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Cape Breton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Lakehead ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Nipissing ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* St. Francis Xavier ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Saint Mary's ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Thompson Rivers ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Trent ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ
* Université de Moncton
* Université du Québec en Outaouais
* ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge
* ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Northern British Columbia
* ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Prince Edward Island
* ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina
* ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Windsor
* Wilfrid Laurier ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ

Fitzpatrick earns ASTech honour

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:02:48 +0000

Dr. Dennis Fitzpatrick the U of L's former vice-president (Research), and now a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, recently received the Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) award for Outstanding Contribution to the Science and Technology community.

When Fitzpatrick arrived at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge in 1999 as the new VP Research, he had a mandate to create nationally recognized programs. He recognized the small university had a modest research profile and a pool of good researchers. He also knew that the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta had a long history of research that overshadowed the U of L's limited resources.

ASTech award presenter Dr. Robert Haché of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, left, presents to the U of L's Dr. Dennis Fitzpatrick.

"It was like opening up a corner store beside a major retail chain," says Fitzpatrick. Because the U of L was low on resources, Fitzpatrick says he had to find ways to build them.

"This was challenging in Alberta because of the province's history of funding primarily meritorious institutions," he says. "We had to find leading-edge programs to get the funding. It was like the chicken and the egg. Which comes first?"

Under Fitzpatrick's research leadership, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge evolved into a comprehensive research and instructional university with strong ties to the provincial technology community. During the last 10 years, the university's research budget has grown from $2 million to almost $24 million in 2010.

"The money increases the kinds of opportunities that impact the lives of people in Alberta, and especially southern Alberta," says Fitzpatrick. His 'think big and shoot high' philosophy is fundamental to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's success, as is his vision to deliberately focus on developing specific areas with programs of instruction and research in tandem.

Fitzpatrick's strategic, thematic approach was instrumental to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's ability to develop expertise and become a centre of excellence in the following areas: neurosciences, water resources in semi-arid ecosystem, biotechnology, genomics biochemistry, earth imaging applications for integrated resource management and imaging technology and the study of demographics and population.

"When we built the research infrastructure, we looked beyond the individual researcher's needs to see if we could create a toolbox to serve many people," says Fitzpatrick. "When developing resources in the emerging field of neuroscience, the university department included biochemistry, biology and behavioural sciences because the field has such a broad-based focus."

"We didn't build only one lab, we built 10, opening up a whole new area of expertise," adds Fitzpatrick. "These are the kinds of things that pay off. People get involved in creative research partnerships that allow them to do research in better, more sophisticated ways. We're providing bright people with a whole new set of tools so they can now do remarkable research. And we're training a new generation of scientists in ways we never anticipated."

Paramount in Fitzpatrick's mind was, and is, providing opportunities for students.

"The primary product of research and the value of a university education is highly trained students and the opportunities it creates for them," he says. "Because of our system, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has become a launching pad for students to go to graduate school and on to the rest of their careers."

This story originally appeared in the December issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue of the December Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - VP research

Business plans earn support

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U of L leads way in establishing ACCRU

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Fitzpatrick earns ASTech honour

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