Posted on Feb. 19: Humanities and social sciences granting council begins transformation with consultation

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Rockwell.jpg” caption=”Geoffrey Rockwell “]Researchers, graduate students and other key stakeholders at McMaster and in Hamilton are being invited to help the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council transform itself from a granting council to a knowledge council.

The federal body, which funds research in the humanities and social sciences at universities across the country, is engaging key stakeholders in discussions across Canada to develop a new blueprint for the organization and to increase and improve dialogue between the council and its stakeholders.

A new vision, mandate and structure for the council will emerge from the process, which is designed to rejuvenate the organization and strengthen understanding of the importance of public investment in the human sciences.

“SSHRC is embarking on this transformation process, which will involve 12 months of focused public consultation, to re-invent itself as not just an organization that delivers grants but also as a body that imparts knowledge to the nation,” says Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president research and international affairs. “The council is at a juncture in its history. After 25 years and considerable change within our environment and our communities, SSHRC is taking stock of what it currently does and what it wants to accomplish in the future. To do this it is engaging the research community, research users and Canadians — its key stakeholders — in public dialogue and consultation. This is an opportunity for McMaster and its communities to contribute to a new vision and future for the council.”

McMaster's consultation process will be led by Geoffrey Rockwell, a professor in the School of the Arts and director of the Humanities Media and Computing Centre. Shoukri has appointed Rockwell to serve as SSHRC's campus representative and lead the initiative. He will be meeting with key University stakeholders, both internal and external, to gather feedback and information about SSHRC. The information gained will be compiled in a University report which will be submitted to SSHRC on May 1. Kelly Curwin, formerly of the Office of Public Relations, will serve as project manager of the consultation process.

“This process is an opportunity for McMaster researchers and graduate students, and members of the Hamilton community to be involved in a major transformative process that SSHRC is undergoing. After 25 years SSHRC is looking at how the research environment has changed and who its audience is today. It wants to determine how we can engage this audience and ensure research is taken seriously and gets to the right people,” says Rockwell.

The consultations will focus on such themes as the interactions between researchers and the effect of research results.

In a letter posted on the SSHRC Web site, SSHRC president Mark Renaud explains that one of the goals of the process is to determine how changes in the environment, most notably globalization, terrorism and technology, have affected how researchers conduct their work and the kind of research that is undertaken. The organization is not looking to completely re-invent itself and stop doing open (basic) research. Rather it seeks to enhance the research that is currently conducted.

Rockwell says consultation will take place internally through town hall meetings which will be open to all, and through selected smaller group meetings with researchers, graduate students, departments, and academic, governing and administrative bodies. Meetings will also be held with off-campus groups/organizations/individuals with ties to McMaster's humanities and social sciences research enterprise. Consultations will be held between now and the end of March. Dates for the town hall meetings will be publicized on the Daily News.

Anyone with questions or seeking information about the process can e-mail sshrc@mcmaster.ca. Information will also available at the Web site of the Office of the Vice-President Research and International Affairs and on the SSHRC Web site.

McMaster's report to SSHRC will be combined with other university and society reports. The funding council will form a task force to analyse the information and prepare a report which will be circulated to universities in October and submitted to the federal government.

“Our goals are to meet with groups that are stakeholders in this transformation and to develop a report with recommendations that represent the views of the McMaster community. Everyone has a stake in this, including our graduate students, who will be our future scholars. It's an important process and one that we believe will lead to an enhanced council, a stronger and more vibrant research environment, and a better understanding nationally of the human sciences,” says Rockwell.