Duration: 2025-Ongoing
Creating a University Research Framework workbook is a CC-by-nc licensed workbook to support the design of university research frameworks. Funded through a project led by Canada’s Technical Assistance Partnership – Expert Deployment Mechanism (TAP-EDM) program and Global Affairs Canada, members of the RbD partnered with the Maldives National University to strengthen its research capacity in climate and environmental sustainability. The collaborative initiative generated tools and the Maldives National University (MNU) Climate and Environmental Research Framework 2025-2030 all designed to advance MNU’s ability to contribute more impactfully to Maldives’ climate resilience through research and knowledge mobilization.
The Creating a University Research Framework Workbook, emerges from that project and is offered as an interactive tool to support other universities drafting their own research frameworks. The workbook, as with the project from which it emerged, is focused on climate and environmental research, but could easily be adapted to other topical areas of research. The workbook was informed by subject matter experts from Royal Roads University including: the research-data management expertise of Royal Roads University’s (RRU) librarian Amber Gallant, the research administrative expertise of RRU’s Director of Research Services, Dr. Deborah Zornes, and the insights and research expertise of Drs. Michelle Hamilton-Page and Robin Cox from RRU’s Resilience by Design lab, and consultant Jennifer Hoffman. Whereas the version of this workbook used in our with MNU, focused on climate and environmental research, this version is designed for use more generically as a tool to support small to mid-size universities think through what a research framework could look like in their institutional context. The workbook has an explicit and intentional integration of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) principles in research. This not only aligns with Canada’s commitment to advancing a feminist approach in international assistance programs, it also recognizes the importance of research incorporating an understanding of the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women and marginalized communities.
Download The Creating a University Research Framework Workbook.