Colleges to help shape Canada's research EDI program through two-year Dimensions pilot

Last Thursday, Science Minister Kirsty Duncan announced the selection of a cohort of post-secondary institutions that will participate in a pilot program to chart a path toward greater equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the research ecosystem. Five of the 17 institutions are colleges, which makes Canada’s research EDI program, known as Dimensions, unique in the world.

Dimensions was launched by the federal government last May to publicly recognize universities, CEGEPs, colleges and polytechnics taking concrete steps to address systemic barriers experienced by members of underrepresented or disadvantaged groups in the research ecosystem. During the two-year pilot program, which will start in September, participating institutions will work to advance their EDI objectives with the support of tri-agency staff and other partners. And in 2021, they will apply for formal recognition of their work — the first institutions in the country to do so.

During that time, the cohort will also help to develop the design and delivery of Dimensions. “Canada is breaking ground [in research EDI] by including colleges and by going beyond gender and STEM fields to all academic areas,” said Jane Ngobia, Vice President, Inclusive Communities at Sheridan College, one of the pilot institutions, in an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY. Most of the other equity initiatives, including the United Kingdom's Athena Swan Charter, on which Dimensions is partly modelled, are aimed at universities. "There is no template for colleges, so the [Dimensions] pilot will provide an opportunity to shape that new reality,” she said.

The inclusion of CEGEPs, colleges and polytechnics significantly expands the scope and reach of Dimensions, more than doubling the number of institutions eligible to apply for recognition.

“The participation of colleges is an opportunity to extend EDI efforts further across the post-secondary sector and reach a larger research and training community and all those who participate directly and indirectly in research activities. Colleges are very diverse, and reflect very different communities across the country,” according to a statement to RE$EARCH MONEY from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), which administers Dimensions for the tri-agencies.

The initiative dovetails with increased federal funding to support applied research at CEGEPs, polytechnics and colleges. Budget 2018 included an additional investment of $140 million over five years for the College and Community Innovation Program (CCIP), which launched in 2009. The CCIP aims to increase innovation, including social innovation, through research collaborations between colleges and local businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

In addition to Sheridan in the Greater Toronto Area, the Dimensions cohort includes Camosun College in Victoria, Holland College in Charlottetown, Lethbridge College in Alberta and Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario.

Participating institutions were selected on the basis of location, type and size, but also “to give us maximum understanding of their realities,” said Karine Morin, Director of Policy and Interagency Affairs at NSERC, where she is responsible for the implementation of Dimensions. She told RE$EARCH MONEY: “We were looking for some [institutions] that are already leading in the field that others could benefit from. But we also wanted those that need to learn, that need to try and do this work, so that we could understand, ‘What are you able to do and what aren't you able to do? What support will you need?’”

Understanding the differences

Of course, there are many differences between colleges and universities, and given the broad scope of Dimensions, it will need to be designed and delivered to account for them. Some differences are obvious, such as the fact that colleges are focused on teaching rather than research. As a result, the makeup of students, staff, research personnel and faculty, and the work environment, differ.

“Research is not necessarily an expected part of a college faculty member's workload, whereas in a university setting, research time is often enshrined in the collective agreement. So the processes or support or indicators that we would use to look at access to research or equity in research will necessarily be different in an environment where not everybody is expected to or even interested in pursuing research,” said Andrea England, Vice Provost of Research at Sheridan. Together, England and Ngobia are leading Sheridan’s advisory committee that will oversee the development of an EDI action plan.

Colleges also don’t have the same academic ranks as universities, with a stepwise promotion and tenure process. The same is true for students, who don’t progress from a master’s degree to doctorate to junior faculty position. Without those career milestone in the college system, it may be more difficult for research EDI programs to design interventions, measure progress and, ultimately, gauge success. Furthermore, colleges aren’t federally mandated to collect and report employment equity data, as the universities are.

Defining the opportunities

Other differences are less obvious, such as what counts as research and also as research outputs. Those may be peer-reviewed published papers, or, in the case of colleges, prototypes, improved business practices, or community toolkits.

“I think that is the education that we [the colleges] will bring to the table: What constitutes research and how is that measured within our sphere, how does that differ from the university sector, and are there points of confluence?” said Ngobia.

Colleges also excel at community engagement, partnering locally with industry and community organizations to solve local or global challenges. They also serve as a gateway to education for their local community, which often includes the underrepresented or marginalized groups Dimensions is designed to assist.

“By virtue of our location and our mandate, we’ve been serving underrepresented communities probably by a very huge margin,” said Ngobia. That message came through during consultations on Dimenions, according to NSERC: “We clearly heard that the program should recognize engagement with communities as an important facet of EDI, which is an area where colleges can shine.”

Over the next two years, each pilot institution will develop a self-assessment team to coordinate qualitative and quantitative EDI data collection, analysis and action planning with goals based on identified gaps, barriers and trends.

At the end of that time, Morin said, “I think they will have a measurable leap forward on EDI, but also just a very mobilized EDI community across the country.”

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