Community-engaged Research (CER) at the University of Victoria (UVic) has made a significant impact in our local and global community in almost all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals at varying levels (i.e. micro, messo, macro). Students have been central to fuelling these activities – and the outcomes have been outstanding, for students and community partners.
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.
The main objective of the study was to assess the various levels (e.g. micro, messo, macro) and broad range of impact resulting from Community-Engaged Research between 2009-2015. Tis 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 Impact report of the study can be accessed at: CER Impact UVic March 2017
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 impact narratives can be accessed here: Impact Stories UVic 2017
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 also inform criteria to support the assessment of community engaged scholarship in reviewing grant applications, partnership proposals, and faculty tenure, promotion, and merit applications.
A crisp and statistical impact summary, highlighting key indicators can be accessed at: Impact Summary UVic 2017
You can also visit the OCUE website soon to see the final high resolution Impact stories and full report: https://www.uvic.ca/ocue/engagement-map/impact-stories/index.php