Our Activities
Research priorities are the focus of the Centre’s operations. The Centre identifies the most prevalent and pressing issues suited to interdisciplinary, collaborative, and innovative research and management. Based on these priorities, the Centre develops proposals, and seeks funding.
Centre members are encouraged to be involved in and contribute to research projects that address their own needs. Members may contribute financially or in-kind on a project-specific basis. Such contributions could include
- researcher salaries and offices;
- transportation;
- access to information such as laboratories, herbaria, taxonomic resources, libraries and databases; and
- enabling research on operational sites.
It is recognized that contributions of members could be limited to those projects that are consistent with their own mandates and priorities. However, the Centre’s criteria for setting research priorities ensure that most projects have some components directly relevant to member concerns. Due to the collaborative nature of the Centre’s research, participation in projects is consistent with the concept of public-private partnership (P3) arrangements encouraged by the British Columbia government.
The Centre undertakes management and administration of research, and ensures that mechanisms are in place to apply scientific rigour to each project. The Board of Directors, while being responsible for these functions, can delegate their implementation to Centre staff or contractors. The research itself is conducted by groups of qualified scientists including:
- professors,
- graduate students,
- consultants,
- agency or industry researchers—under contract or through grants from the Centre, or provided as in-kind contributions from their own organizations.
Those conducting the research are determined by the expertise required for the studies and by contributions from collaborators, and vary from project to project. Contracts are awarded through a defined, transparent process to capable companies or individuals. Eventually the Centre could also have a staff of researchers.
The results of all research are reported publicly and each research project will include an extension component to be delivered or sponsored by the Centre. The Centre may communicate research results through public conferences, seminars, field demonstrations, newsletters, scientific papers, technical and non-technical publications, and other means such as the Internet.
The Centre is a network of alliances or affiliations rather than a building full of people. Its projects are largely carried out by consultants, licensees, academics, and educators based in their own offices, rather than by staff employed by the Centre. The Centre’s staff, reporting to the Board of Directors, provides project management and administrative support for the organization.