Research and Development Centre for Orillia Lakehead Campus

Orillia Packet and Times

Becoming a hub of research has been a goal of Lakehead University since it opened a campus in Orillia in 2006. That dream is about to come true.

The university senate recently approved Lakehead Orillia’s proposal for a Research Centre for Sustainable Communities.

“This is a huge accomplishment for the university,” Orillia campus dean and vice-provost Kim Fedderson said Wednesday. “The senate doesn’t approve research centres willy-nilly.”

The research centre will focus on environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Initially, Lakehead’s main focus was on environmental sustainability, Fedderson noted. When Lakehead invited the community to a discussion in 2008 to help shape the new campus and its academic direction, other themes, including the economy, emerged. The focus became “triple bottom-line sustainability,” Fedderson said, referring to the environment, economy and social justice.

“It really hit a resonant chord in Orillia,” he said.

A team of professors helped craft the concept of the research centre. They were part of a committee, formed in 2011, that made the proposal to the university senate about a year ago.

Creation of the research centre is one of the goals included in Lakehead’s 2013-18 Orillia campus plan.

“One significant advantage of having a centre is that you need a centre to be eligible for funding for some initiatives,” Sreekumari Kurissery, head of Lakehead’s interdisciplinary studies department, told The Packet & Times in February 2013. “It allows us to access a bigger pot of money.”

“The overarching aim of the Centre for Sustainable Communities will be to conduct and promote research and research-related activities that have positive implications for the sustainability of communities,” she said. “The centre will add to Lakehead University’s growing research reputation, with the objective of positioning Lakehead as a national and international leader in research on sustainable communities, and as a superlative research institution.”