August Message from Matina

Dear CNAS community,

As we move toward the end of the summer, I want to share a few updates on some of the important planning and renewal work underway across CNAS. While summer is often seen as a quieter time on campus, we have been making significant progress on several initiatives to strengthen support for research, education and our academic community.

This work includes advancing graduate awards administration, supporting consultations on the proposed course-based Master’s in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and launching the Discovery Grant enrolment registry. We are also developing additional initiatives to strengthen grant development and research support across the college.

Momentum is also building on the LIFT Centre. Architects have been spending time in the Biological Sciences Building, touring existing spaces and gaining a deeper understanding of how our faculty, staff and students use them every day. Thank you to those who have hosted the consultants in your spaces to provide critical insights. Functional Space Planning (FSP) is now complete, marking another important milestone in the project. The FSP advises on the use of space to maximize efficiency, usability, comfort and safety.

These activities help to inform our goal to create a collaborative, high-service research and teaching space – a hub that brings together life sciences researchers, faculty, students and industry leaders. While there is still much work ahead, it is exciting to see this project progress and take shape. Thank you to everyone who continues to contribute their time and expertise throughout this process.

Work has continued on the CNAS Space Master Planning throughout the summer. There have been ongoing SME group discussions, along with a working group meeting to review data validation and identify gaps. The next working group meeting takes place in September with a focus on validating findings. This collaborative process will help shape our physical spaces across the college. The group has broad representation across all faculties, and had thoughtful discussions about our current classroom and laboratory environments, our anticipated needs for the future and how we can best support evolving approaches to teaching, learning and research. These conversations are only the beginning, and I appreciate the willingness of participants to share their perspectives and experiences as we develop a shared vision. A list of working group members and timelines can be found here.

Thank you to everyone who continues to engage in these planning efforts. Modernizing our spaces is a significant undertaking, but paints an exciting future for our students, researchers and colleagues. I look forward to sharing additional updates as this work progresses in the months ahead.

Enjoy the remainder of the summer and, as always, if you would like to share any thoughts or ask questions, please reach out to me at deancnas@ualberta.ca.

Sincerely,

Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell
Dean and Vice-Provost, College of Natural and Applied Sciences