Research, education and service to the community: New ideas for a world with new demands
May 26, 2012 at 2:30 - 3:30 pm
Senate & Board Chamber, Dining Hall Building, Wilfrid Laurier University
A robust innovation system can have a profoundly positive impact on communities when it translates into the creation of high quality jobs, industrial growth, new enterprises, improved public infrastructure and services, and a cleaner, healthier environment. Encouraging innovation has been a key policy objective for both provincial and federal governments.
As governments embrace this goal and look to our national institutions for support, they are placing new demands on universities to play a larger role in the cultural, economic and social lives of the communities in which they operate. This expanded role is creating new opportunities for universities to serve their communities and stakeholders in more complex and dynamic ways.
This “service to the community” model has also had an impact on the working life of academics. Terms such as “engaged scholarship,” “translational research” and “knowledge mobilization” have been added to a changing vocabulary as teaching and service move outside the university.
What do we mean by “service,” and how is the meaning changing? How do we define “community,” and how can we understand how working academics relate to the communities in which they work?
This panel, sponsored by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, will investigate new models of service in Canadian universities, looking specifically at how university leaders are defining “service” in their institutional, regional, national and global contexts.
