By Jeff Hughes (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: April 9, 2014
What on Earth is a Canada Research Chair?
There are 2000 chairs available at universities throughout Canada with varying numbers of seats assigned to each university. UFV currently has two of these chairs, one belonging to Dr. Hugh Brody, the Canada Research Chair in aboriginal studies, the other to Dr. Lenore Newman, the Canada Research Chair in food safety and the environment.
The Canada Research Chair position was established in 2000 by the Government of Canada to bolster the country’s position as a leader in research and development.
What does holding one of these positions mean for UFV and the surrounding community?
“I’m very interested in food and the role it plays in our society,” she says. “How we reconcile urban uses with farmland and have lots of food and still have room to build our cities.”
For Newman, the proximity of UFV to the large agricultural land reserves of the Fraser Valley, which can be seen coloured on the large regional map on her office wall, added to the position’s desirability.
She goes on to explain the distribution of funding for such a project, noting that the government contributes some, but not all.
“To a degree my position is funded by the federal government, but I also apply for grants, also usually from the government, but often from other organizations,” she says listing agricultural organizations, provincial, regional, and other parties as some of those others. “One of my jobs is hunting money, always. A lot of that money brings students into the projects and that’s really exciting to me.”
Larger schools would normally have graduate students working on research projects of this type, and holding these projects through UFV give undergraduate students a chance to participate in research.
“Because we don’t have all the doctoral students and grad students, and because we’re really student-oriented, we can bring our students into research they’d never get to experience otherwise,” she says. “So it’s a big advantage on the job market. And especially we have a lot of students who do very well and some do go on to grad school and they’ve already got a publication because they worked with us.”
The Canada Research Chair positions are a major benefit to smaller universities that lack the large research budgets found at schools such as UBC and brings undergraduate students into the researching fold, Newman notes. It generates attention for the school and places it higher in university rankings for specific programs when higher profile researchers such as Newman are present and working with students.
