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REDUCING ADMINISTRATIVE BARRIERS TO RESEARCH
VPRI portfolio lead
Shelley Gair
Executive Director, Office of the Vice President Research & Innovation
On this Page:
Challenge
Faculty members have identified “lack of time” as the biggest constraint in increasing their research output. For individual faculty members, balancing the competing demands of research, teaching and service is challenging. For department chairs, school directors and deans, balancing the need to deliver academic programming—and to support a dynamic research environment—is also challenging.
Action
Consulting with deans, chairs and directors, ADRs and SFU Faculty Relations, we will identify barriers to availability and effective use of research time for faculty members. Best practices across faculties, schools and departments will be shared and places where flexibility exists in the system (e.g., course scheduling/stacking) and within the current collective agreement will be examined.
Project Goals
Consultations with several Faculties and centralized units to help identify administrative barriers that researchers are experiencing that take time away from conducting research
- 2026
Started Consultations with three additional Faculties - Faculty of Education, Faculty of Environment, and Faculty of Applied Science. Continue to meet with central units as well.
- 2025
Consulted with three Faculties – Faculty of Science and Faculty of Communications, Art, and Technology (FCAT), Faculty of Health Science to better understand the current administrative barriers thar researchers in their Faculty are experiencing that negatively impact research. Gathered the information through interviews, meetings and surveys, and prioritized issues based on importance to the Faculty, commonalities with other two Faculties (and Uniforum survey), and impact (both short and long term).
Met with other units (Research Accounting, Research Services, Finance, Procurement, ITS, HR, etc.) to share feedback and get their perspective on issues.
Identify short-term improvements and longer-term solutions to address prioritized items.
- 2026
A number of short term improvements have already been completed. For example: New and improved Canvas training course for FAST, a Kuali training component embedded within the Research Services Canvas course, a session on "Research Procurement" as part of the Research Support Sessions.
- 2025
A number of administrative issues have been identified. Based on the collected data, we have determined the four highest-impact administrative barriers and are actively working through them.
Support centralized units in preparing proposals for longer term solutions
- 2026
We’re working with central teams to develop proposals for longer -termimprovements. For example, a JV Automation proposal with Research Accounting.
Update the community on project progress and and on short-term improvements and longer-term solutions.
- 2026
Regular updates are being provided to the faculties consulted on the project, as well as to other appropriate stakeholder groups.