Ernie Kroeger, one of the researchers for the Walking, Health and the Civic Landscape project, speaks to audience members (above, right) at a recent information session at the Sports Action Lounge at Interior Savings Centre.
Thompson Rivers University will be the site of three new research centres and will continue to operate a fourth as a result of funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Members of the Small Cities Community-University Research Alliance (CURA), a national research program based at TRU, were awarded a total of $36,000 in Aid to Small Universities funding to start up and sustain the research centres.
The SSHRC funding will establish a centre for Walking, Health and the Civic Landscape; a Centre for Communication, Education and New Media; a Centre for International Sustainable Development and Research; and the already-established Centre for Community-Based Youth Health Research has received additional new funding.
“The new research centres involve 16 CURA researchers and draw upon the resources and expertise of existing community partners, including the City of Kamloops, the Fraser Basin Council, Make Children First, and the Kamloops Museum and Archives, ” said CURA Research Director Will Garrett-Petts. “Our community-university alliance has created a ready network of research partnerships to draw upon “and by doing so we can help build the research capacity of both the university and the community.”
“The support from SSHRC for these research center initiatives by CURA helps us to further develop the close ties our university has with its community. The conceptualization of these centres has emerged organically from issues in the community and through collaboration with CURA’s partners, ” said Dr. Ulrich Scheck, TRU Provost and Vice-President Academic”. The multidisciplinary approach to each of these subjects will enhance the research opportunities for faculty and students and will assist TRU in securing further funding by leveraging our current research expertise and capacity.”
Garrett-Petts credits TRU’s Research Office for securing the Aid to Small Universities funding”. The funding for these new centres helps extend the reach and scope of our Small Cities CURA research program, allowing for both the creation of new knowledge and possibilities for well-informed policy development.”
The centres, along with other ongoing research initiatives (including contributing a small cities studies focus to the proposed Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies at TRU) are part of the legacy of accomplishments and opportunities the CURA is working toward before it concludes in 2011.
Contact: Dr. Will Garrett-Petts, Research Director, Small Cities CURA
(p)250.828.5248; CURA Office: 250.371.5757 or (e) petts@tru.ca
