Grant: CCI Mobilize Grants

Located in the heart of Montréal, Dawson College is the largest institution in the 48-member provincial CÉGEP network and has long supported a flourishing research landscape in form of research clusters, with partnerships forged with industry (AI); community and non-profit organizations (food justice, sustainability, anti-racism); and pedagogical innovation. Dawson stands at a crossroad: the College recognizes there is a growing role for applied research to increase community engagement and student success. We also recognize that we are pushing the limits of our capacity. Our goal is to strengthen, align, and coordinate our research clusters to create a research ecosystem focused on collaborative research with external partners. Dawson’s aim is to create a sustainable, networked infrastructure—the Collegial Applied Research Ecosystem (CARE)—guided by Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA)-informed principles and Participatory Project Management (PPM) collaborations where stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process to direct the project. CARE will establish a harmonized research ecosystem that places our research clusters in a network with our external partners and with each other; develop new partnerships to innovate and extend services to the Montréal region; create collaborative bridges between our partners; encourage the development of burgeoning college researchers; provide an equitable space for robust student training. Thus CARE will become a hub that serves Montréal that provides solutions that helps our community and facilitates collaboration and communication between partners and clusters. This project will nurture, grow, and diversify our networks of external partners; strengthen our research capacity to tackle 21st century problems through sustainable, EDIA-informed PPM methodologies; provide meaningful student training by including students as stakeholders, and create a platform that eases communication between researcher, clusters, and partners. To do this, CARE will (1) Establish initiatives to build partnerships, including a CARE Fellowship; (2) Support researchers through release backfill; (3) Provide student training opportunities; (4) Build a virtual platform that promotes inter-cluster and partners communication to broaden the scope of collaborations. As CARE is a unique vision, we will share results which allows other institutions to connect with CARE and to create their own unique research ecosystem.