Regional Initiatives Fund

VIU has a unique mandate to serve the Island and Coastal region. The Regional Initiatives Fund (RIF) was a bold experiment undertaken in partnership between VIU, the Province of British Columbia and the Real Estate Foundation of BC to enable community-university collaborations on applied research. The RIF supported communities in the region to collaborate with VIU faculty to undertake projects through meaningful student involvement in community-based applied research that directly responded to community priorities.

Since the fund was announced in March 2017, more than 51 applied research projects have been undertaken involving the participation of 118 community groups and the training of 380 VIU students, leveraging $2,434,496 in cash and in-kind funding. Projects range from evaluating the economic impact of the local artisan economy to exploring the potential of biodiesel; supporting the development of community; tourism and open space plans; monitoring changes in fish habitat and air quality; and more.

This research has enabled a wide range of community entities to benefit from the funding, expertise and labour available at VIU. The insights gained have provided our partners opportunities to make informed decisions on a number of pressing social, economic and environmental issues in our region.

Faculty have had the opportunity to build capacity in community engaged and applied research, forge new relationships within the region and mentor students in meaningful research training opportunities. They have also benefitted by having an opportunity to manage larger pots of funding, increasing their competitiveness for external grants. Our students have had valuable exposure to real-world problems faced by organizations in the region and have worked alongside them to co-create knowledge to address them. They have also benefitted from valuable mentorship by faculty members leading the work.

Together, we have proven that this “made at VIU” model for community engaged and applied research works. On February 18 VIU held the Collaborative Applied Research Symposium (CARES) to celebrate the knowledge that emerged and to thank our community partners and funders for their willingness to collaborate with VIU on the RIF. The symposium was attended by more than 70 participants throughout the day and featured presentations, panel discussions and Pecha Kucha videos about projects supported through the RIF. 