york strategic research plan

The plan will explore global opportunities in areas such as disruptive technologies, Indigenous futurities and climate action

This past spring, York unveiled a new strategic research plan that aims to accelerate and intensify the institution’s research enterprise over the next five years. Knowledge for the Future: From Creation and Discovery to Application was developed after months of open forums, public consultations, and input from over 1,500 members of the campus community.

The plan showcases the breadth and depth of research excellence at York and offers a vision for the University to further develop its research, scholarship, and creative activity. The strategic research plan is a vital element to complement the UAP that charts York’s overall direction.

The plan identifies six areas of existing research strengths and six areas of opportunity for York to prioritize beginning this year through to 2028.

Six areas of strength:

• Advancing Fundamental, Discovery and Theoretical Research and Scholarship
• Illuminating Cultures and Cultivating Creativity
• Building Healthy Lives, Communities and Reimagining Futures
• Reaching New Horizons in Science, Technology and Society
• Pursuing Justice, Equity and Sustainability: From Urban Dynamics to Global Challenges
• Elevating Entrepreneurship Through Socially Responsible Innovation

Six areas of research opportunity:

• Digital Cultures and Disruptive Technologies
• Healthy Communities, Equity and Global Well-being
• Indigenous Futurities
• Climate Action for a Sustainable Planet
• Social Justice, Peace and Equitable Relations
• Inter and Transdisciplinary Research Innovation

VPRI launches consultations on strategic research plan, announces advisory committee members

By Staff | Sep 16, 2022

Amir Asif, York’s vice-president research & innovation (VPRI), announces the members of the Strategic Research Plan (SRP) 2023-2028 Advisory Committee.  Community input will be sought during an open forum planned for Sept. 28.

The committee, chaired by Asif, is comprised of individuals from the University and community who will advise the VPRI throughout the strategic research plan consultation process in the development of the University Strategic Research Plan for 2023-2028.

 “I am pleased to announce the members of the Strategic Research Plan Advisory Committee,” said Asif.  “I am looking forward to working together with the members of the committee as well as the broader University community to develop a renewed strategic research plan that articulates our values and vision for York research and commits to the next phase of research development across the University over the next several years.”  

The committee has a mandate to advise the VPRI on all aspects of the consultation with the York Community and in the development of the plan, which will articulate a vision and aspiration for York research over the next five years. The goal is to provide the community with a draft reflecting the discussion in early 2023, with a final version going to the Senate of York University for approval in spring 2023.

The advisory committee members include:

• Amir Asif , vice-president research & innovation, Chair of the SRP Advisory Committee
• Joycelyn Amos , Markham research operations manager, VPRI
• Krista Davidson , director, communications, Office of the President
• Tamara Daly , director YU-CARE, professor, School of Health Policy & Management, Faculty of Health
• Susan Dion , associate vice-president Indigenous initiatives, VPEPC, professor, Faculty of Education
• Barbara Edwards , senior policy advisor, research, VPRI
• Trevor Farrow , associate dean research & institutional relations, professor, Osgoode Hall Law School
• Eileen Fischer , associate dean research, director marketing specialization, PhD program, entrepreneurial studies, Schulich School of Business
• Sarah Flicker , YRC in community-based participatory research, professor, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change
• Jennifer MacLean , assistant vice-president, innovation & research partnerships, Innovation York
• Michael Moir , University archivist, Office of the Dean of Libraries
• Carmela Murdocca , professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
• Swann Paradis , associate principal research and graduate studies, associate professor French Studies, Glendon Campus
• Gillian Parekh , Canada Research Chair in Disability Studies in Education, associate professor, Faculty of Education
• Sarah Parsons , associate professor, Department of Visual Arts & Art History, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
• Joel Prowting , PhD candidate, Faculty of Graduate Studies
• Mark Roseman , director Strategic and Institutional Research Initiatives, Office of Research Services, VPRI
• Vivian Saridakis , associate dean research and graduate education, associate professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science
• Jen Steeves , associate vice-president research, York Research Chair in Non-invasive Visual Brain Stimulation, professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
• Skandha Sunderasen , associate director, global engagement and strategic directions, York International
• Cheryl van Daalen-Smith , associate dean academic, Faculty of Graduate Studies, associate professor, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health
• Rick Wildes , associate professor, vice-chair graduate program, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering
• Nation Cheong , vice-president community opportunities and mobilization, United Way Greater Toronto
• Jane Gertner , vice-president partnerships, ventureLAB

Asif, in collaboration with the Strategic Research Plan Advisory Committee, invites all members of the University community to be an engaged part of a comprehensive consultation process that will help York University continue to move forward in research excellence and scholarship.  The Strategic Research Plan open forum, launching the consultation process, will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 28 , from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Dr. Robert Everett Senate Chambers, N940 Ross Building, Keele Campus.  All students, faculty and staff are welcome to join in-person.

To RSVP to this event, click here

To share your thoughts on the Strategic Research Plan consultation process, click here . There will be additional opportunities for York community  to provide input to the 2023-28 University Strategic Research Plan.

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Strategic Research Plan 2023-2028 Open Forum

Join the Office of the Vice President Research and Innovation for an open forum on York’s Strategic Research Plan 2023-2028.

Attendees will have the opportunity to share feedback on the newly unveiled SRP draft plan and ask questions. Fore more information, visit https://yorku.ca/research/strategic-research-plan

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Working together to develop a Plan for the Intensification and Enhancement of Research (PIER)

Both the University Academic Plan and the Provostial White Paper identify research intensification as a key University goal and recognize research as a core endeavor that broadly enriches the institution.

York is committed to being recognized as a comprehensive, research intensive university and is making progress towards that goal. York’s Strategic Research Plan (2013-2018) has set the strategic direction for research development. York University’s new Plan for the Intensification and Enhancement of Research (PIER) provides an operational framework in support of the University Academic Plan and the Strategic Research Plan. It also supports the institutional integrated resources planning process aimed at promoting research intensification broadly across the institution at the level of the individual professor, department and within a Faculty.

“I would like to thank the PIER working group and the entire York University community for providing invaluable feedback and contributions to the PIER consultation draft over the 2015-2016 academic year,” said Robert Haché, York University’s Vice-President Research and Innovation.  “The broadly based engagement in and response to York’s Plan for the Intensification and Enhancement of Research will play a leading role in growing the research culture at York and the intensification of our research, scholarship and related creative activities.”

The release of the finalized PIER follows extensive university-wide consultations with faculty, staff and students.  These consultations included a second round following the release of the draft Plan in March 2016, preparatory to the finalization of the Plan, during which the VPRI conducted over twenty site visits with members of Faculties and units across the University to gather their feedback, and also hosted a Community Chat and an Open Forum where all members of the York University community were invited to share their views on the draft Plan.  Members of the York community also provided their feedback on the draft Plan online.

This website includes the results of the PIER consultations and provides further information on the final PIER report.

Robert Haché, Vice-President Research & Innovation

Keele, Glendon and Markham Campus Contact (416) 736-2100 Campus Maps

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UNIVERSITY OF YORK

Research strategy, our purpose.

At the University of York, the advancement of knowledge through the development of ideas, theories and concepts, and through collaboration with others, is done for public good.

We are tackling important environmental, social and economic challenges.

Through our curiosity-driven research and engagement with partners we lay the foundation for addressing issues not yet known.

OUR OUTSTANDING REPUTATION SETS THE STAGE FOR EVEN MORE INSPIRATIONAL RESEARCH

OUR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

A Thriving Research Community

IDEAS AND CREATIVITY

A Centre of Research Excellence

Delivery of Public Good through our Research

PARTNERSHIP AND PLACE

A Trusted and Effective Partner

SUPPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE

An Environment that Ensures We Realise Our Ambitions

OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

These Strategic Priorities describe the areas of focus which will be reviewed and updated periodically as we make progress on our aims and as we respond to external opportunities and challenges.

OBJECTIVE 1

People and culture a thriving research community.

Creating the conditions and culture within which diverse people, ideas and approaches can flourish - enabling our community to work with integrity, build equitable and respectful collaborations, and seek and tackle new intellectual challenges.

• Nurture a sustainable and progressive research culture.
• Create career paths, incentives and reward mechanisms that develop and encourage all members of the research community.
• Provide time and reward for staff to deliver on the institution's research and impact ambitions.
• Meet the needs of our postgraduate research student community from recruitment to graduation and beyond.
• Embed the principles and culture of open research and responsible research and innovation.

OBJECTIVE 2

Ideas and creativity a centre of research excellence.

Nurturing high quality and ambitious research across our broad discipline base - leading the generation and exchange of knowledge and understanding, inspired by working within and across disciplines and through co-creation of research with a wide range of partners.

• Undertake and enjoy excellence in research.
• Advance curiosity-driven research.
• Advance interdisciplinary research practice.
• Develop research participation and involvement.

OBJECTIVE 3

Delivering public good through our research.

Addressing environmental, social, cultural and economic problems with compassion and rigour, locally, nationally and globally.

Ensuring our research is open and shared to enable effective pathways to impact, and influencing teaching and research practice in the global academic community and beyond.

• Promote and value the sharing of ideas and knowledge to generate impact.
• Expand the impact of our business engagement.
• Engage to inform and shape policy and public discourse.
• Foster entrepreneurial activity arising from our research.

OBJECTIVE 4

Partnership and place a trusted and effective partner.

Developing equitable and sustainable partnerships in our City, region, nationally and globally to increase our reach and influence. Working together in synergy to inspire new ideas, addressing common challenges.

• Promote and manage partnership opportunities that deliver positive change.
• Establish an effective role in our local community to use our research to deliver public good.
• Forge new international partnerships where research drives engagement and knowledge creation.
• Increase our influence by effective use of our national and international networks.

OBJECTIVE 5

Support and infrastructure an environment that ensures we realise our ambitions.

Building and maintaining the professional expertise, estate, equipment, digital infrastructure and income streams required to foster creativity, deliver world-class research, innovation and knowledge exchange, and to increase the financial autonomy and environmental sustainability of the University.

• Deliver effective, efficient and resilient processes and systems to support research.
• Build our capability to grow our partnerships.
• Deliver an environmentally sustainable, high quality physical and digital estate to support world-leading research.
• Raise our ambition and capacity for growing and diversifying externally-funded research.
• Ensure the York Graduate Research School provides an institutional focal point.

Read the full Research Strategy (PDF)

York University Academic Plan 2020-2025

Building a Better Future

The University Academic Plan (UAP) 2020-2025 is about coming together to make positive change for our students, our campuses, and our local and global communities. 

This UAP is launching at a moment of unprecedented trial for human and planetary health, security, well-being, and understanding. In the midst of both a global pandemic and an international mobilization against anti-Black racism, our York University community has demonstrated extraordinary creativity, solidarity, and dedication to serving the public good while caring for all people, including the most marginalized and vulnerable. As a leading generator of knowledge and exemplar of social responsibility, York seeks to bring expertise from across disciplines to build new tools and strategies to tackle the myriad dimensions of these historic crises. Notwithstanding the restraints imposed by physical distancing, we are truly coming together as a resilient community. In the process, we are proving once again York’s commitment to an enduring and distinctive set of core values:

• We strive for Excellence in fulfilling all aspects of our mission.
• We are Progressive , encouraging open minded inquiry, innovative approaches, and forward looking solutions. 
• We champion Diversity and Inclusivity , embracing differing perspectives, peoples, and ways of knowing, and fostering global fluencies and cross-cultural knowledges. 
• We are passionate about advancing Social Justice and Equity through critical insight, creative problem solving, and socially responsible action. 
• We uphold Sustainability – environmental, social, and fiscal – as a vital compass for decisions and initiatives. 

These values are embedded in York University’s Mission and Vision statements: 

The mission of York University is the pursuit, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge. We promise excellence in research and teaching in pure, applied, and professional fields. We test the boundaries and structures of knowledge. We cultivate the critical intellect. York University is part of Toronto: we are dynamic, metropolitan, and multi-cultural. York University is part of Canada: we encourage bilingual study, we value diversity. York University is open to the world: we explore global concerns. A community of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and volunteers committed to academic freedom, social justice, accessible education, and collegial self-governance. York University makes innovation its tradition. Tentanda Via : The way must be tried.

York’s vision is to provide a broad sociodemographic of students with access to a high quality education at a research intensive University that is committed to enhancing the well-being of the communities we serve. 

The Journey to 2020 

After a decade of rapid development York has arrived as a fully comprehensive, research- intensive, multi-campus, urban University. We combine groundbreaking scholarship, discovery, and artistic creation with renowned strengths in community engaged and industry partnered research for maximum social and economic impact. 

We are a full spectrum University, increasingly recognized for excellence in health, engineering, and sciences, while we continue to lead in liberal arts, creative and performing arts, and professional studies. The comprehensive strengths of our Keele campus are enhanced by our bilingual Glendon campus, our downtown professional learning sites devoted to law and business, our management education campus in Hyderabad, India and our eco-campus in Las Nubes, Costa Rica. 

York boasts one of the largest and most diverse undergraduate and graduate student bodies in Canada, almost 18% of whom are now international students. Through the ingenuity of our faculty, we have dramatically grown opportunities for students to access our programs virtually from anywhere in the world, and to learn experientially through community placements, capstone projects, and research internships. Students are embracing new programs in emerging areas like Global Health, Indigenous Studies, Digital Media, and Management of Artificial Intelligence. Our School of Continuing Studies has quickly become one of North America’s largest and most successful, offering cutting-edge and flexible pathways to education for adult learners looking to retool their careers.

Through the growth of Innovation York, we have emerged as a thriving regional hub for entrepreneurship and knowledge mobilization. We value our deep connections to local and global partners, who work with us to contribute to the wellbeing of both people and communities. York University has a global alumni network of over 325,000 people in more than 170 countries, who are making a positive impact on their communities and excelling in every field of human endeavour. 

Our Next Chapter

York is entering a new phase of purposeful expansion in directions that anticipate the needs of future learners, both locally and globally, as well as the evolving needs of society. We reassert our foundational commitment to the arts, humanities, and social sciences not only as fields of inquiry but as modes of apprehending human existence at this critical juncture. In addition, we will launch a new campus in Markham centred on technology and entrepreneurship. We will develop an integrated health precinct with partners in Vaughan. We will take steps to realize the potential of the Lands for Learning at our flagship Keele Campus. We will elevate our international partnerships and profile, and the global connectivity of our research and our graduates. To enable this future-oriented vision, we will invest in robust professional development for our instructors and in the significant renewal of our research and teaching infrastructure, both physical and virtual. 

York has scaled up its health-related teaching, research, and innovation based on a vision of keeping more people healthier, longer. We are well placed over time to establish a medical school aligned with this vision, to serve one of Canada’s fastest growing and most diverse regions through a community-based care model that integrates physicians into broader health and wellbeing promotion teams. 

Focusing on the next five years, our UAP charts a path to positive change in relation to six Priorities that are foundational to York University’s mission, vision, and identity. For each Priority the Plan explains why action is imperative and the key aims that will guide us. Permeating all six Priorities is a theme of coming together as both a precondition and an outcome of fulfilling the Plan. A better future must be rooted in strong relationships – among the members of our own institution, across our multiple campuses, with our closest neighbours and Indigenous communities, and with our burgeoning networks of partners near and far. 

Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals In the spirit of coming together, the York community has expressed a strong desire to bring our unique capacities to bear on some of the most urgent issues facing the planet, from climate change to inequality to truth and reconciliation to forced migration, among others. Over the next five years, we will challenge ourselves as a University to deepen our collective contributions to the United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The York University SDG Challenge will invite participation from all interested members of our community. York is already recognized globally for our excellence in SDG-relevant research, education, innovation, and civic action. The SDG Challenge will further elevate our engagement and project our distinctive ethos as a community of changemakers. Additional details are provided in the final section of the Plan.

York university’s planning ecosystem .

The UAP 2020-2025 marks a new beginning. At the same time, it builds on the transformational work already underway across the institution. This Plan is designed to function as a meta-document that links our existing academic plans and initiatives into a coherent whole. It embeds and affirms the University’s Strategic Research Plan, its Indigenous Framework, its Sustainability Strategy, and a new Internationalization & Global Engagement Strategy, among others. These focused strategies are embraced as vital planning elements that complement the UAP as an overarching meta-document, which charts our direction over the next five years. 

Our UAP also informs our operational and budget plans. York is known as a leader in Integrated Resource Planning (IRP), which ensures that our high-level strategies do not sit on a shelf but are translated into concrete implementation plans. Every faculty and administrative unit has an IRP that lays out the specific actions it is taking to embrace and implement the UAP with timelines and regularly scheduled progress reports, so that our people and our financial resources are continually aligned to support our stated academic priorities and goals. 

Six Priorities for Action 

York University has an enduring commitment to critical inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge that comes from many differing perspectives and ways of knowing. As a learning community, we believe in the power of research, scholarship, creativity, education, and dialogue to transform ourselves and the world around us for the better. We share a collective belief in the university as a public trust. 

Our new UAP is designed to uphold the fundamental values of the University, even as we evolve our roles and reach to ensure our graduates are equipped for a future that will be defined by dramatic change. 

• Climate and environmental change raise urgent questions for virtually every field of endeavour and a need to come up with innovative solutions.
• Digital inter-connectivity and physical mobility of people generate complexity but also immense possibilities to accelerate collaboration and problem solving.
• Technology is simultaneously enabling, enhancing, and disrupting every sphere of life and work, as well as revolutionizing how we all learn, think, and create. 
• Global power shifts translate into local tensions and inequities, highlighting the need for meaningful strategies to enhance international cooperation, economic inclusion, and social cohesion. 
• The ethical and moral imperatives of social movements—such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, among others—need to inform our policies and direction as an academic community and as a force for good in the world.

Read More About

Our Six Priorities for Action

Answering the Call: A University-Wide Challenge to Contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 

In addition to the six foundational Priorities above, members of our York University community have expressed a strong desire to make a difference on compelling issues of our times. Community members have highlighted a range of complex societal issues to which York is ideally placed to contribute, given our commitment to social responsibility, our extensive network of partnerships, and our excellence in thinking across disciplines. It is striking that most of the issues that surfaced in these conversations are referenced in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a framework that calls on member countries to take urgent action in seventeen areas that are critical to ensure peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has further underscored the urgency of this agenda. 

York’s Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Meeting the challenges of tomorrow.

At York University we are renowned for the opportunities we offer students of all backgrounds, for our progressive outlook and breakthrough achievements, and for our ability to reimagine the possible. Over the past few months, fuelled by our passion to serve, we have demonstrated tremendous fortitude as we have rallied together, innovated, and adapted, emerging stronger and more resilient than ever. As we enter this next chapter, our UAP will provide an inspirational compass to guide our choices and actions. Our hope is to enable every member of our community to fulfill their potential and contribute their talents as we create positive change, locally and globally, for our students, the communities we serve, and the world around us.