Research & Innovation Enterprise

The Office of the Vice-President of Research and Innovation (OVPRI) facilitates research excellence and impact. 

The OVPRI:

• Seeks opportunities for new collaborations and research partnerships
  
  
• Serves as a catalyst for new initiatives
  
  
• Develops research policy for the university
  
  
• Informs and advises senior administration on research initiatives
  
  
• Promotes research carried out at Dalhousie and encourages the university’s involvement in regional, national and international research and development activities
  
  
• Advocates for government support for research
  
  
• Maximizes the communication of research
  
  
• Supports university researchers by working to remove impediments to obtaining external research funding

Contact the staff

The Dalhousie Research Advisory Committee (DRAC) is composed of the Associate Deans Research from each Faculty at the university.  DRAC provides advice to the Vice-President Research and Innovation on issues relating to the research enterprise at Dalhousie University. The committee:

• Advises the Vice-President Research and Innovation on research matters
  
  
• Advises deans and faculty about ongoing and important research issues
  
  
• Acts as the conduit for information about research and innovation between the OVPRI and individual faculty members.

dal.ca/ors

The Office of Research Services (ORS) works with Dalhousie faculty members to support research applications to and awards from external funding agencies.  

Specifically, ORS:   

• Provides information on funding opportunities
  
  
• Facilitates and reviews applications
  
  
• Advises on and assists with funded research projects
  
  
• Liaises with funding agencies, partners and government
  
  
• Coordinates institutional support for applications, and
  
  
• Facilitates research ethics.

dal.ca/ocie

The mandate of the Office of Commercialization and Industry Engagement is to grow the research enterprise at Dalhousie by partnering with the private sector and provide excellent customer service to our research community customers.

OCIE manages and facilitates collaborations between our industry partners and university researchers, commercializes research at Dalhousie and assists in the creation of spin-off ventures. 

Specifically, OCIE:

• Assists researchers with industry partnerships and funding for research projects, including matching funds from various sources (economic development, Tri-Agency partnership funds, etc.)
  
  
• Partners with academic inventors to advance inventions and commercialize their research, including intellectual property protection
  
  
• Advises on start-up companies, and
  
  
• Supports the university-wide innovation and entrepreneurship agenda.

At the core of Dalhousie’s research and innovation activities are world-leading researchers—including 56 Canada Research Chairs—at work in the lab, the library, the studio and the field. Their wide-reaching initiatives attracted $194 million in research funding in 2020-21, involving collaborations in nearly 100 countries, and they have been recognized across our province, our country and on the global stage for their many achievements. They are the reason we do what we do. 

Dalhousie’s Deans are essential to the research and innovation enterprise, providing faculty-specific strategic input on research priorities, opportunities and challenges to the VPRI while providing direction, support and guidance to the researchers, technical and administrative staff within their faculties.

The work of research at Dalhousie would not be possible without the knowledge, contributions and hands-on effort of skilled technical and administrative staff. They are key to many of the critical research and innovation activities at Dalhousie.

Dalhousie’s institutes and centres provide a focus for shared academic and research interests within the university. Centres typically focus work within one faculty, while institutes undertake research activities that complement and enhance the work of multiple researchers across more than one faculty and involve multi-disciplinary and multi-faculty work.

dalinnovates.ca 

As a leading innovative, research-intensive university offering a wide variety of innovation and entrepreneurship programming, including academic courses, programs, research and extra-curricular activities, Dalhousie both supports and plays a leadership role in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. With a focus on both social and economic innovation we have established critical partnerships with other universities and colleges, health authorities, private businesses, nongovernmental agencies and organizations, incubators, accelerators, science parks, venture capitalists and other organizations.