A Confluence of Leaders

The Transforming Research for Social Impact (TRSI) Hub represents a bold new chapter in social science research at the University of Alberta. Bridging the gap between academic research and community-based social action, it’s an interdisciplinary partnership, the first of its kind in Alberta, offering innovative training in socially responsive research methodologies.

Now entering its first full year of operation, Michelle Maroto — one of five co-directors from across CSSH and indeed, across the colleges themselves — and Oliver Rossier, director of the Office of Research, recently reflected on the collaborative spirit that brought the Hub to life and the social impact milestones they aim to reach next.

Oliver, among the many initiatives on your radar, what makes the TRSI Hub stand out as a project you’re excited about? 

The TRSI is a confluence of leaders — a team that has been woven together from across our colleges. If you look at the list of people in leadership roles, each of them, individually, are doing fascinating things, but it’s also their engagement with other teams. The TRSI brings a whole new kind of possibility to the research landscape on campus.

Michelle, what was the impetus for TRSI? 

It’s been a very long time in the making! It started about eight years ago when we were re-visioning the Population Research Lab in the Department of Sociology. We wanted to keep that lab going, because it has done great research over the years, and would benefit from more involvement in education and engagement. Sara Dorow and I spent many hours, and then years, having conversations about how to make this initiative happen. 

Early on, we talked to various people at the college who had expressed an interest in this, like Marvin Washington, former CSSH dean, who was a really strong proponent, as was Helen Vallianatos. Now we have Chris Andersen and of course, Oliver in the Office of Research, working so closely with us throughout this process. 

There is a lot of interest in methods training research at the university, and a lot of people who wanted to be involved, which is how our team grew larger. It expanded further in partnership with KIAS, the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology and the Community University Partnership.

What are some of TRSI’s initiatives?

One of the things we’ve been working on is Crafting Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations and Approaches (CIRCA), which offers both panels and workshops meant to enhance U of A researchers’ understanding and skill for practising interdisciplinary research — especially research that bridges perspectives and approaches to address complex social issues. 

We also hold a monthly methods seminar where we invite people to come in and talk specifically about some of the methods around their project, and also highlight how those methods and that project as a whole might be pushing for social change and social impact in a bigger way. It’s open to faculty, students and people and community organizations outside of the university. 

More broadly, we see TRSI as a place where all of these different things come together on a regular basis, and we have the capacity to take new initiatives on. Our advisory committee, which includes students, helps us plan the next steps for the Hub. It’s really about how we can make this vision sustainable and keep it going for many years.

What types of funding have you been able to secure? 

We knew we needed to apply for funds to implement the initiatives we had spent years talking about so we applied for a KIAS Research Cluster Grant and put together the research cluster — Advancing Research Methods and Training for Social Change — not the most succinct name, but it was the group that got this started! 

We started building some projects evaluating how methods training was happening at the university, and we realized that we needed something even bigger because people were interested in incorporating research as well and taking that interdisciplinary focus. We applied for additional funds, including the Strategic Research Initiatives Fund (SRIF), which really helped bring TRSI to life.

In December, we submitted a Digital Research Alliance of Canada National Data Spaces grant application in collaboration with the City of Edmonton, PolicyWise and teams in Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Athabasca. The application is focused on all the different types of data that organizations collect but don't always get to share and build upon. For instance, how do we build a better data space for non-profits, community organizations and governments to work together and share data to help with all these different initiatives? We will hear next month, but there is some really good momentum around this idea of a data space so we'll keep building it regardless.

And we’re not just focusing on research or teaching — we want to integrate them. How do we build better course-linked, community-engaged research into our different courses, where we're engaging with a range of different community projects and giving students applied research experience? We're working on a Spencer Educational Foundation grant, and we’re hoping that it will help us incorporate and develop understanding of the impacts of these different educational opportunities. So for example, a summer research methods Institute and different types of workshops to really build that type of learning.

Oliver, how does the Office of Research operationalize this vision?

That’s why TRSI keeps jumping out as a great example of how this process works well, because they’ve built up this depth of relationship — a research network ready and able to go for those larger grants, like the SSHRC Partnership, SRIF and other opportunities.

Sounds like a good example of One University in action.   

With a team like TRSI, we are always listening for what they might need next, and then try to mobilize the resources they need, when they need them. We are helping to create an ecosystem of research and we want to keep it as fast, simple and efficient as possible so that researchers can feel supported in reaching toward that next opportunity.

To get in touch with the TRSI team, please email trsihub@ualberta.ca.