About Us
B. Mario Pinto, V.P., Research
The Vice-President, Research is an advocate for university research and guides policy development at the university, provincial and national levels. He is responsible for the offices of Research Ethics, Research Services, and Innovation, the SFU Library, and Research Safety programs. He serves as the University Delegate to the Natural Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
The Vice-President, Research serves on several external boards, councils, and committees, including: the Research Universities’ Council of BC Vice-Presidents, Research Committee; Executive Committee, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS); and Board of Directors, Discovery Parks, Inc. In addition, Dr. Pinto serves on the Boards of the Chemical Institute of Canada, the Canadian Society for Chemistry, the Centre for Drug Research and Development, and the Canadian Design Research Network. He sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of Sirona Biochem Corporation; the Steacie Institute for the Molecular Sciences; and the National High-Field NMR Centre (NANUC). He was a member of the Canada-India Education Alliance, the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Research Integrity, and served on the France-Canada Research Fund Executive Committee.
Dr. Pinto is a strong champion for SFU's new models of knowledge mobilization and business acceleration, which link University innovators with British Columbia’s startup industry and local business leaders to achieve research outcomes with real societal and economic benefits. He is also a champion for multi-disciplinary approaches to global problems and for establishing national and international linkages in research, technology, and education. Pinto has been instrumental in facilitating India-Canada collaborations in the areas of infectious diseases, population and public health, clean energy technologies, and resource and environmental management.
Norbert H. Haunerland, Associate V.P., Research
As Associate Vice-President, Research, Dr. Haunerland shares responsibility for academic leadership in the administration of research and other scholarly activities by all personnel associated with SFU. Together, the Vice-President, Research and the Associate Vice-President, Research have the opportunity to raise SFU's research profile to an internationally competitive level. The main areas of responsibility for the Associate Vice-President, Research are the encouragement, facilitation and administration of research across all Faculties, and the administration of the Animal Resource Centre, the CL3 facility, and the Major Projects Office.
The administration of the Major Projects Office involves working with SFU senior administration and the provincial government to ensure that SFU's proposals fit within their respective strategic plans. He provides a link between the Canada Foundation for Innovation, government officials, CEOs of collaborating companies and senior administrators of collaborating institutions. Administration of SFU's participation in the Canada Research Chairs (CRC), the Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC), and the Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) Chairs programs is another area of responsibility. Internally, the Associate Vice-President, Research oversees the Community Trust Endowment Fund, the University Publications Fund, the SSHRC Small Grants Committee, and VPR 4A Grants in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Externally, the Associate Vice-President, Research represents SFU on boards or oversight committees for various organizations, including TRIUMF, the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences, WESTGRID, BCNet Research Advisory Committee, the Down Syndrome Research Foundation, and Population Data BC. He also serves as the University Delegate to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Dr. Haunerland works to mobilize SFU's strategic research plan and to develop performance indicators to assess progress toward desired research outcomes. He promotes the unique strengths and needs of SFU's researchers to the Tri-Agency Granting Councils, while also encouraging their increased participation in grant competitions and collaborative initiatives. Across all disciplines, he builds partnerships between diverse internal and external groups that can be leveraged into major consortium opportunities. For example, Dr. Haunerland co-hosted and co-organized Health Research Day 2012 to showcase the diversity of health research at SFU, and chaired a session on working in partnership with health authorities and other stakeholders. He also facilitated SFU's role in a personalized medicine initiative with India and laid the groundwork for a joint SFU-United Kingdom criminology project.
Reporting Departments
The Major Projects Office promotes, encourages, and supports the development
of proposals for submission to major grant competitions.
The Office of Research Services assists
SFU faculty in obtaining and administering
financial support for their research.
The Office of Research Ethics ensures that research involving human subjects meets
high scholarly and ethical standards.
The Innovation Office ensures that the necessary conditions are in place for successful university technologies, entrepreneurs, startup and spin-out companies and industrial partnerships.
Animal Care Services ensures that SFU conducts research, teaching or testing that involves animals in the most humane and ethical manner possible.
The SFU Library provides information resources, teaching and learning programs, research support, and technology initiatives
to SFU's faculty, students, and staff.
Research Safety is paramount at SFU and includes the development, implementation
and coordination of programs in biosafety, chemical safety, hazardous materials management, diving safety, field research,
and radiation safety.
Climate Change Research at SFU
SFU is a founding member of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), and SFU has an active Climate Change Research Program.