I get the chance to represent Memorial in a lot of different spaces.

Wherever I find myself — in a board meeting, at a conference, giving a talk to international students or having coffee with a colleague from another university — I’m always pleased to tell the Memorial story of how our innovators, artists, scholars and scientists are helping make a positive impact here at home and abroad.

People are genuinely interested in learning about what goes on at Memorial and why our research matters.

In fact, in a world spread out over seven continents and 195 countries, I’m amazed at how connected our researchers are.

From municipal politics to critical minerals

That really hit home recently when I read about some of the inspiring projects benefitting from federal funding competitions such as the New Frontiers in Research Fund, which supports high-risk and high-reward transformative research.

Memorial experts from a variety of fields are collaborating with other scientists and scholars from across Canada and around the world to help address issues ranging from managing floods in the Caribbean to an Indigenous-led sustainable mineral resource sector in Canada.

I found a similar story when I checked out the latest Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council competition results.

Researchers from areas such as geography, economics, political science, maritime studies, engineering and medicine are contributing to projects focused on everything from post-traumatic stress to municipal politics.

A number of our researchers are also collaborating with teams here at Memorial and other Canadian post-secondary institutions to advance knowledge and build specialized capacity for critical minerals research, which provides enormous opportunities for this country.

The teams secured Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Alliance Missions Critical Metals Grants for important resource-based research.

Keep an eye out for future Gazette stories highlighting Memorial researchers and projects.

Research Strategy

I am always impressed by the way Memorial researchers are connected and interconnected to so many projects.

Advancing Memorial’s research opportunities and celebrating the achievements of our researchers is one of the objectives of our Research Strategy 2023-28.

The strategy, adopted by the Senate and the Board of Regents last fall, sets the vision and mission for Memorial’s research activities.

“There is an undeniable sense of pride and energy about this place.”

It also includes new refined core principles, goals and objectives and overarching research themes.

If you haven’t checked it out, I encourage you to take a few minutes to read it.

You’ll find the strategy, designed by colleagues in the Division of Marketing and Communications, here.

Celebrating research

Celebration is also a cornerstone of Research Week, Memorial’s flagship research event.

I encourage our community to start thinking of ways you can help build connections and get to know more about what colleagues are doing here at our university.

The goal of Research Week is to celebrate and raise awareness of Memorial’s internationally renowned research expertise and encourage more multidisciplinary collaboration among our research community.

This year’s celebrations take place Nov. 25-29, with options for teams to host spin-off Research Week or Research Spotlight events in 2025 to coincide with Memorial’s 100th anniversary.

I’ve been working at Memorial for more than 20 years.

I still get excited when I walk into a new lab, see how some of our cutting-edge technology works, meet our smart and energetic students and chat with our talented researchers.

There is an undeniable sense of pride and energy about this place.

I invite you to learn more about research at Memorial.

Have a read of some of our recent stories in the Gazette, take in a lecture, concert series or open house and be sure to tell a friend about some of the incredible things happening at our university.

As our diverse research activities accelerate and expand, our research teams are making positive changes here at home and around the world that are helping build a stronger tomorrow.