About SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative

Our Purpose

Designed around a collaborative research infrastructure, SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) promotes principles of participation, cooperation, social transformation, and knowledge translation to lift and strengthen the capacity of SFU’s researchers and students, to engage respectfully and ethically with community organizations, Indigenous Nations, community members, and leadership, including cultural leaders. This will allow our researchers and students to develop meaningful and productive research partnerships that are capable of strengthening relationships between universities, nations, and organizations. CERi focuses on a positive relationship between universities, communities, and Indigenous Nations. 

Our mission:

  • Develop a new social infrastructure within SFU
  • Entrench and expand SFU’s capacity to lead community-engaged research
  • Develop a one-of-a-kind infrastructure that will be unique in Canada

Our mandate:

  • SFU is strengthening the capacity of our researchers and students to engage respectfully and ethically with community members, community organizations, Indigenous Nations, community members, and leadership, including cultural leaders.
  • Through meaningful and productive research partnerships, researchers are capable of making a positive difference within their communities
  • Facilitate wider public engagement with research, deepening connections between researchers and communities
  • Develop a practice for ethical community-engaged research through ongoing dialogue amongst SFU researchers, community organizations, Indigenous Nations, community members, and leadership, including cultural leaders

How CERi supports SFU’s engaged vision:

Engaging Students: To enhance learning by enabling students to work with researchers in community in mutually beneficial and ethically driven ways.

Engaging Research: To build resources needed to support researchers, community organizations, Indigenous Nations, community members, and leadership, including cultural leaders, in mutually beneficial co-creation and in celebration of collaboration.

Engaging Communities: To center and support the knowledge and expertise that already exists in community organizations, Indigenous Nations, and leadership, including cultural leaders, and to foster genuine collaboration in diverse research contexts, including academia.

Engage with members of SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative