This Research Strategic Framework was developed in collaboration with our community from October 2022 to April 2023. It was guided by input from the OVPR Leadership team, as well as 24 interviews conducted with various stakeholders — a process comprising structured conversations and focus groups and a campus-wide survey for UTM faculty.
Our team conducted a self-study of our portfolio strengths, needs, and pressure points. We engaged members of our community in the process and considered how best to foster new ideas; to identify, cultivate, and champion industry and public partnerships; and to expand knowledge sharing and storytelling efforts.
We also benefitted from plans shared across the University. UTM’s Strategic Framework, UTM’s 2017 Academic Plan, UTM’s Sustainability Strategic Plan, and the University of Toronto Strategic Research Plan 2018-23 all guided our work and served as the foundation on which this framework was built.
As we developed our plan, the accountabilities laid out in UTM’s Strategic Framework kept us on course, with the following questions top of mind:
- Have we fostered a dynamic research environment, with administrative and infrastructural supports, that encourage our researchers’ diverse pursuits?
- Have we built rewarding collaborations among faculty, students, librarians, and research and core facilities staff at UTM and U of T?
- Have our research discoveries shaped academic inquiry, student teaching and learning, innovations in industry and entrepreneurship, and public discourse?
- Have we cultivated research partnerships that leverage the strengths of UTM’s unique Mississauga location and of U of T’s tri-campus system?
- Does research at UTM address challenges of immediate and enduring relevance and help translate knowledge effectively for internal and external communities?
The culmination of the above efforts and guiding principles is the following framework.
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