Canada Research Chairs Description

Canada Research Chairs

In 2000, the Government of Canada established the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP) to attract and retain a diverse group of world class researchers to achieve research excellence in engineering and the natural sciences, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences in Canadian postsecondary institutions.

The Government of Canada invests approximately $295 million annually in the CRCP to support 2,285 research professorships, Canada Research Chairs, at eligible postsecondary institutions. The CRCP is committed to research excellence and equity. Through this support chairholders improve our knowledge and quality of life as well as help train the next generation of highly skilled people to strengthen Canada’s international competitiveness.

Eligible postsecondary institutions receive a set number of chair allocations based on the funding received by their researchers from the three federal research granting agencies: the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC); and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (the agencies). 

Mount Royal University has been allocated 5 Tier 2 Chairs.

Tier 2 Chairs
  • Targeted at outstanding exceptional emerging researchers acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to to lead in their fields
  • Tenable for 5 years 
  • Eligible to be renewed once at the discretion of the faculty and university

Mount Royal's Canada Research Chairs

 

Ranjan Datta

Ranjan Datta is a Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in the Department of Humanities at Mount Royal.  He is the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Community Disaster Research.  

Datta is a settler scholar of colour and was born and raised within minority communities in Bangladesh. His primary research focuses on disasters and how they affect communities in the vicinity of the event. This is analyzed through the lens of climate change and trying to address its impacts through an anti-racist and Indigenous focused perspective. Indigenous Peoples and minority groups are disproportionately affected by climate change, and Datta's research specializes in learning how to address the risk climate change induced disasters have on those groups. 

This avenue of research also ties into water/food security and Indigenous management of those resources, along with overall community resilience to disasters. 

Cherie Woolmer

Dr. Cherie Woolmer is an Assistant Professor and the Canada Research Chair for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

She works out of the Mokakiiks Centre for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Her research program focuses on student-faculty partnerships in higher education, which is informed by critical pedagogy, socio-cultural approaches to change, and the impact of pedagogical partnerships on institutional culture. Her recent publications focus on approaches to co-creating curriculum with students and issues of equity and risk in partnerships.

She co-facilitates Mount Royal’s SoTL Development Program, runs workshops and book studies on issues relating to pedagogical partnerships and SoTL, and offers consultations with faculty and students engaged in SoTL.

 

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

The CRCP is committed to research excellence and acknowledges that achieving equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is also essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to seize opportunities and for responding to global challenges. As such, the program is committed to the federal government’s policies on non-discrimination and employment equity. 

Postsecondary institutions participating in the CRCP must commit to providing a supportive and inclusive workplace.

CRCP’s EDI requirements and practices

 

Public accountability transparency

In accordance with CRCP’s public accountability and transparency requirements, Mount Royal University is required to publish information related to the management of our chair allocations. 

MRU's CRCP EDI Contact

For more information on MRU's CRCP EDI agenda contact:

Connie Van der Byl, PhD

Associate Vice-President, Research, Scholarship an Community Engagement

cvanderbyl@mtroyal.ca

(403) 440-7017