KAMLOOPS – A $1 million grant under the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA)program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) will have local, regional and national interest and impact, spokespersons from Thompson Rivers University (TRU) announced today.
“Thompson Rivers University is honoured by the confidence placed in our institution by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the awarding of this major research grant, and by the trust placed in us and our body of researchers by our many partners, collaborators and co-investigators,” said TRU president Roger Barnsley.
Over the course of the five-year grant, chief investigator Dr. Will Garrett-Petts of TRU will be joined by 37 co-investigators, 21 collaborators and 36 partner groups in developing quality of life indicators for small cities and other related projects.
TRU and its partners, chief among them the 1000-member strong Federation of Canadian Municipalities, will focus on creating a template for the measurement of quality of life in small cities, a unique project in that no such measurement paradigm exists as yet; quality of life measurements for larger centres (ie: the number of art galleries and municipalities measured on a per capita basis) do not adequately reflect quality of life in small cities.
Project partners will augment the $1 million CURA grant with $2.3 million in cash and in-kind contributions for infrastructure and research support for quality of life research and related projects, which include mapping cultural intersections and processes, community assets and creativity, with individual research on such topics as formal and informal learning, small cities and the media, First Nations storytelling, community rituals, and the like.
The projects will build on findings arising from a previous CURAproject related to small cities that resulted in a large number of significant publications, exhibitions and presentations.
The CURA adjudication committee stated that “while this CURA focuses on small cities and communities in one (fairly broad) area of Western Canada, it has implications for similar-sized communities across Canada.”
The committee went on to applaud TRU’s “rigorous and engaging” multifaceted approach to mapping the quality of small city life, and noted that “the range of partners and the quality of the support letters are truly outstanding. It is obvious that the partners share the excitement and vision of the importance of mapping the quality of life in small cities and the potential the studies hold for changing policy and practice around small city life.”
“Thompson Rivers is very pleased to be the lead university in a research consortium doing ground-breaking work in the areas of small cities and quality of life,” said Barnsley, explaining that “We have been working hard at TRU to foster a vibrant, relevant research culture, and to forge mutually beneficial networks in our community and far beyond our boundaries. The findings related to this research project are expected to have local, regional and national interest and impact for changing policy and practice around small city life.”
SSHRC launched the CURA program in 1999 to support the creation of community-university alliances based on an equal partnership between organizations from the community and the university, which, through a process of ongoing collaboration and mutual learning, will foster innovative research, training and the creation of new knowledge in areas of importance for the social, cultural or economic development of Canadian communities.
For more information, please contact lead researcher Dr. Will Garrett-Petts at 250-828-5248 or by email.
