From the President’s Desk: Signature Areas Campus Forum

Please join Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Steven Dew, Vice-President (Research) Lorne Babiuk, and me at a Campus Forum focused on the development of signature research and teaching areas.

When: Thursday, March 23, Noon — 1 pm
Where: Council Chambers, 2–100 University Hall, Van Vliet Complex

Last November, we launched the signature areas development process. All members of the university community were invited to submit proposals by the January 28. We received 57 proposals, reflecting a wide range of research activity across multiple faculties at the University of Alberta. Since then, the Signature Areas Development Panel, co-chaired by Steve and Lorne, has met several times, conducting initial analysis and synthesis of the proposals and grouping them into larger themes.

At the Campus Forum, the co-chairs and members of the panel will provide an update on their work, including a discussion of emerging thematic clusters. We will also review anticipated next steps. We invite all faculty, staff, and students to join us and provide your input and advice as this process continues to unfold. Please register here.

If you wish to review the submissions, we have posted the proposals on the Signature Areas webpages. Access to the submissions folder will be restricted to people with a UAlberta CCID.

Our thanks to everyone who has taken the time to actively participate in the process. We can see already that new connections are being made across campus, opening up the potential for new areas of research and teaching collaborations between individuals and teams.

We look forward to seeing and hearing from you at the Campus Forum next week. If you are unable to attend, the event will be livestreamed and comments can be sent to the panel at signature.areas@ualberta.ca.

Thank you,

David Turpin
President and Vice-Chancellor