Research & Scholarship Governance

MRU Strategic Research and Scholarship Plan 2024-2030

The Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement is currently in the process of drafting a new Strategic Research and Scholarship Plan (2024-2030).

MRU Strategic Research and Scholarship Plan 2018-2023

Mount Royal University fosters excellence in undergraduate education enriched by research and scholarship for knowledge generation, application and positive change. We are guided by an institutionally-approved document titled Discovery & Change-making through Research and Scholarship.

A central premise of the plan is an exceptional undergraduate experience that includes thoughtful integration of research and scholarship into the tenure of all Mount Royal students. Learning and participating in research alongside faculty members enhances the experience of undergraduate learners through:

developing critical, analytic and creative skills,
improving the understanding and retention of course material,
understanding knowledge creation processes and the innovation cycle,
applying new knowledge to novel situations,
engaging in creating positive change through community engagement, and
increasing confidence, independence and capacity for complex problem-solving.

The SRSP is organized around advancing progress on five goals and associated strategies:

Goal 1: Our Students. Provide Mount Royal students with undergraduate research opportunities.

Goal 2: Our Researchers and Scholars. Enhance support for research and scholarship.

Goal 3: Our Research Infrastructure. Enhance the space, facilities and access for research and scholarship infrastructure.

Goal 4: Telling our Stories - Celebrating our Successes. Increase dissemination and communication of research and scholarship.

Goal 5: Working Together. Increase opportunities for collaboration.

Guidelines and Procedures

Standard Operating Procedures & Documents

CFI Funding MRU Application Process

Establishing and Recognizing Research Collaborations other than Institutes

Reassigned Time for Externally Funded Research and Scholarship

Visiting Scholars

Volunteer Student Researchers

MRU Research and Scholarship Policies and Procedures

Committee Information

Research and Scholarship Committee

The Committee provides advice and recommendations with respect to policies, programs and other initiatives related to research, creative and other scholarly activities at Mount Royal University. Click the link below for more information and a list of committee members.

Research and Scholarship Committee Charter

Undergraduate Research Dissemination Fund Adjudication Committee

The URDF Adjudication Committee is a working group comprised of members from the Research and Scholarship Committee. The group meets once per semester to overview URDF applications and award funding to the successful applicants. More info about applying for the URDF can be found here.

Name	Department	Email
Melissa Deane (Chair)	Director, Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement	mdeane1@mtroyal.ca
Brian Jackson	Library	bjackson@mtroyal.ca
Sara Sharun	Library	ssharun@mtroyal.ca
Gwen O'Sullivan	Faculty of Science and Technology	gosullivan@mtroyal.ca
Jeella Acedo	Faculty of Science and Technology	jacedo@mtroyal.ca
Jared Fletcher	Faculty of Health, Community, and Education	jfletcher@mtroyal.ca

Scholarship Review Committee

Committee Charter

The Scholarship Review Committee (SRC) reviews all institution-wide internal grant applications, makes decisions on ranking, and provides recommendations on funding to the Director, Research. The SRC also acts as a team of topic-specialist reviewers that may be called upon by the Grants Facilitator, the Human Research Ethics Board, or individual faculty (through the Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement), to review specific portions of applications. Committee members may also be called upon to review specific types of external calls where the institution is the manager of the funds, such as through NSERC USRA or SSHRC Institutional Grants.

Members

Name	Department	Email
Connie Van der Byl (Chair)	Associate Vice-President, Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement	cvanderbyl@mtroyal.ca
Melissa Deane (Vice-Chair)	Director, Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement	mdeane1@mtroyal.ca
Anupam Das	Arts	adas@mtroyal.ca
Harpreet Aulakh	Arts	haulakh@mtroyal.ca
Rebecca Gilmour	Arts	rgilmour@mtroyal.ca
Mark Gardiner	Arts	mgardiner@mtroyal.ca
Hadi Fariborzi	Business and Communication Studies	hfariborzi@mtroyal.ca
Harris Rubin	Business and Communication Studies	hrubin@mtroyal.ca
Matthew McLarnon	Business and Communication Studies	mmclarnon@mtroyal.ca
Eunah Kim	Business and Communication Studies	ekim@mtroyal.ca
Genevieve Currie	Health, Community and Education	gcurrie@mtroyal.ca
Peter Choate	Health, Community and Education	pchoate@mtroyal.ca
Lynn Headley	Health. Community and Education	lheadley@mtroyal.ca
Marva Ferguson	Health, Community and Education	mferguson@mtroyal.ca
Sara Sharun	Riddell Library and Learning Centre	ssharun@mtroyal.ca
Yasaman Amannejad	Science and Technology	yamannejad@mtroyal.ca
David Bird	Science and Technology	dbird@mtroyal.ca
Alexis Morris	Science and Technology	amorris@mtroyal.ca
Lynn Moorman	Science and Technology	lmoorman@mtroyal.ca
Cherie Woolmer	Academic Development Centre	cwoolmer@mtroyal.ca
Karen Pheasant Neganigwane	General Education	kpheasanrneganigwane@mtroyal.ca

Ethics Committees

All information regarding research ethics processess and requirements can be found under Research Ethics.

Human Research Ethics Board (HREB)

Student Human Research Ethics Committee (SHREC)

Animal Care Committee (ACC)

Research Support Fund

The Research Support Fund (RSF) program assists Canadian post-secondary institutions and their affiliated research hospitals and Institutes with the expenses associated with managing the research funded by the three federal research granting agencies. The RSF program, formerly known as the Indirect Costs Program, is a Tri-agency initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The RSF program helps post-secondary institutions to manage the financial demands of the indirect costs of research. Indirect costs are defined as the central, faculty, departmental and/or institute cost that MRU incurs to support research but that is not attributable to specific research projects. Some examples of the costs supported by the RSF program are:

salaries for staff or students who provide administrative support for researchers and their projects;
training costs for workplace health and safety;
costs related to the maintenance of libraries and laboratories; and
administrative costs associated with getting a patent for an invention.

Mount Royal University applies annually to receive a grant through the RSF program to help pay for a portion of the administrative costs related to federally funded research. The amount of the grant is based on the average Tri-agency funding received by Mount Royal University in the previous three years. Mount Royal University received $82,297 in Research Support Funds in 2013-2014, $108,463 in 2014-2015, $161,183 in 2015-2016, $216,648 in 2016-2017, $223,112 in 2017-2018, $212,426 in 2018-2019, $213,289 in 2019-2020, $264,422 in 2020-2021, $331, 732 in 2021-2022 and $429,348 in 2022-2023.

For transparency, and to demonstrate the importance of the RSF program to our researchers, staff, students, community members and elected officials, this report is prepared and made public annually.

Mount Royal University's 2022-2023 Research Support Fund Report

In 2022-2023, Mount Royal University received $429,348.00 in Research Support Funds and allocated these funds to the following categories:

Research Resources: $28,975.02
Management and Administration: $399,165.74
Regulatory Requirement and Accreditation: $1,207.24

Eligible Program Expenditure Category	Output (investment or expense of RSF grant funds)	Performance Objective	Performance Indicator	Target Outcome	Reported Outcome
Research Facilities	$107,537 (20%) invested in research facilities	Refurbishment of the Office of Research to accommodate growth and upgrades/maintenance of existing research facilities	Faculty identification of research facility upgrade/maintenance needs	Refurbishment complete and upgrades/maintenance complete in 2023/24	TBD
Research Resources	$53,768.50 (10%) for research software and subscription for research resources	Maintain and expand access to research resources for faculty	Number of faculty accessing software and databases	2% increase in faculty access to resources	TBD
Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise	$322,611 (60%) to enable grant-writing support, compliance, operational excellence, risk assessments, ROMEO support, training/workshops, promotion of research, research data security, EDI action plan and training.	Continued high quality support for research, given increased research capacity and new initiatives.	Number of grant and award applications processed in fiscal year 2023-24 and increased success rate. Execution of EDI Action Plan and training as well as expanded research data management/security strategy.	Increase in grant and award applications processed in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 with slightly higher success rate. Completion of planned research strategic initiatives.	TBD
Regulatory Requirements and Accreditation	$26,884.25 (5%) for REB, Animal Care and Biosafety compliance	Sustained regulatory compliance.	Positive compliance record.	Zero compliance infractions.	TBD
Intellectual Property and Knowledge Mobilization	$26,884.25 (5%) for community engaged knowledge dissemination	Increased general public awareness and engagement with MRU research and researchers	Number of engagement and marketing activities	1 large public event highlighting research and creation of faculty profiles for public dissemination.	TBD

For more information about research and scholarship governance, please contact Connie Van der Byl, the Associate Vice President of Research, Scholarship, and Community and Engagement, at cvanderbyl@mtroyal.ca.

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