The University of Toronto is committed to supporting excellence in research and innovation across our three campuses and with our community partners. I am inviting members of the U of T community to contribute to the development of the University’s Strategic Research Plan (SRP) by sharing their points of view throughout the consultation and development process. Your input will help identify and structure our strategic priorities and enabling actions in order to support research and innovation excellence at U of T.

The University’s current SRP has been in place since 2012 and ends in 2017. This consultation process will contribute to the development of an SRP to cover the coming 5-year period. The University’s Research Advisory Board will provide guidance, input, and feedback throughout the SRP development, as well as providing critical leadership in the consultation process with the academic divisions. The expectation is to provide the community with a draft of the plan for discussion in the Fall of 2017.

The SRP is a key document that reflects the breadth of U of T research within a flexible framework that identifies broad thematic research areas and expresses our core commitments to research excellence. It also provides direction for how to support university scholarship by identifying strategic objectives and enabling actions. The SRP is meant to provide support and direction but not limit divisional or individual faculty member research priorities. Several external funding programs also require an institutional SRP in order for us to propose projects for funding (such as the Canada Research Chairs program and Canada Foundation for Innovation).

The SRP engagement process provides for consultation and discussion regarding the identification of priorities and actions that will enable us to increase our research excellence and capacity; strengthen linkages between research, education, and training; encourage and build strategic relationships; and identify opportunities to increase the impact of our research and innovations locally, regionally, and globally.

Information about the SRP, the consultation process, as well as opportunities for feedback, are available online. You can provide input in various ways, including attending town halls and meetings, completing an online survey, or sending an email to vpri.reports@utoronto.ca.