Impact Assessment. Community-engaged Research (CER) at the University of Victoria, 2009-2015

Date

2017-05-23

Authors

Tremblay, Crystal

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Abstract

This Impact Assessment report is based on several consultations and research (empirical and document analysis) that took place between July – December 2016 with former Directors, Associate Directors and Research Affiliates from the Office of Community-based Research (OCBR) and the Institute for the Studies and Innovation in Community University Engagement (ISICUE) at the University of Victoria. This assessment is prepared for the Office of the Vice President Research (OVPR) by the Office of Community University Engagement (OCUE), in partnership with Research Partnership Knowledge Mobilization (RPKM) unit at the University of Victoria (UVic). The main objective is to assess the various levels (e.g. micro, messo, macro) and broad range of impact resulting from Community-Engaged Research between 2009-2015. This includes direct outputs and outcomes of the OCBR (2008-2012) and ISICUE (2012-2015), as well as a full academic unit scan across the campus drawing from the Enhanced Planning Tool document (2014-15). Impact is documented by 5 indicators including: 1) external research funding, 2) academic unit scan, 3) reputation, 4) 12 indepth impact case studies, and 5) community-engaged learning metrics. The occurrences of impact are applied to OCUE’s 5 pillars of engagement: Community-engaged Research, Community-engaged Learning, Knowledge Mobilization, Good Neighbour and Institutional Policies and Support, the United Nations Sustainable Development framework (17 goals), as well as UVic’s International Plan (4 areas). The results point to a wide range and diversity of impact to society in each of the 5 OCUE pillars across the academic units in almost all the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Impact narratives from 12 in-depth case studies across the campus (e.g. Business, Engineering, Geography, History) demonstrate signifcant institutional and community beneft as an outcome of CER. The results highlight key institutional supports (e.g., RPKM, ORS) and provide an enhanced understanding of key contextual features of successful Community-engaged Research (CER) initiatives. The results inform criteria to support the assessment of community engaged scholarship in reviewing grant applications, partnership proposals, and faculty tenure, promotion, and merit applications. An impact rubric and guidelines for promotion and tenure are a valuable outcome of this project. This assessment is not exhaustive of all CER activities on campus. Appendix II provides some insight into the numerous research partnerships excluded from this study due to not having enough information that ft the criteria (See methodology).

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Keywords

community engaged research, impact assessment, University of Victoria

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