By Jeff Hughes (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: June 18, 2014
Many university professors take on their teaching roles to advance the sum of human knowledge through research. That research requires money, of which there is a limited amount available.
In February 2014, the government of Canada announced that $1.5 billion would be allocated to fund research projects over the next 10 years. While this may sound substantial, it’s less of an investment than the funding made available only a decade ago. Even with higher investment, it was a challenge to ensure that money came to schools like UFV, and it is an even bigger challenge today.
UFV already works with faculty members on a regular basis to support and encourage success in research, notes Adrienne Chan, associate VP of UFV’s research, engagement, and graduate studies department.
“We already provide a mentorship program by giving training and workshops, but beyond [that] people often need one-to-one,” she says.
That’s where the recently established R2R Mentor system comes in.
“It helps researchers through a mentor,” Chan says. “The mentors themselves have been successful as researchers.”
Having been through the process of obtaining grant money for research projects, experienced researchers — like Garry Fehr of UFV’s geography and the environment department — are in a unique position to mentor less-experienced researchers in their efforts.
“There are a lot of faculty members that would like to be more engaged in research,” says Fehr. “There are those who have been engaged in research for a long time. But it’s very challenging to get funding — funding to hire students, funding for travel, funding for research supplies. It’s getting more difficult all the time to get money to do that kind of research.”
Overcoming these difficulties is a task Fehr seems glad to take on as a mentor, passing on knowledge to give other researchers a leg up on those who may be competing for the same funding.
“It’s particularly important for the university to have faculty members get funding from SSHRC [Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council] or NSERC [Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council],” he continues, explaining that besides the money that comes to the faculty member, there is also money that goes to the university, including funding for bookkeeping and for the students.
The benefits of programs like this extend beyond helping less-experienced researchers obtain funding — it also benefits the school and students. With funding for research projects come opportunities for student employment: the chance to work in a field related to their studies and potentially jumpstart a career path.
