UNBC Welcomes New VP of Research
Saturday, January 12, 2013 @ 4:38 AM
Prince George, B .C. – The University of Northern B.C. has a new Vice President of Research. Dr. Ranjana Bird has joined UNBC from a similar post at the University of Windsor.
“I am delighted to join UNBC which has, at a relatively young age, earned a proud reputation as one of the four research-intensive universities in BC,” says Dr. Bird, She says her goal is to strengthen the connections between research industry and the community “Research and innovation are instrumental to enhancing regional prosperity and well being. UNBC will remain committed to these mandates.”
Dr. Bird has already been busy making connections as she attended the two day BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George. “ I found people to be very friendly, they actually approached me, saying hello, it was really good.”
“When you take a new position you always look at the opportunities and the people around you. You look at how you’re going to make a difference, and you always want to make a difference in any job, at least I do.” She says in today’s world, industries need the skill sets provided by universities, and believes that by working with industries, the community will be more vibrant, prosperous and people’s well being will be increased.
Part of her role, is looking for funding. While she still needs to learn more about financial opportunities through the Provincial Government, she says the Federal government has a large pot of money for research , development and innovation in partnership with private companies. “We have to take advantage of that, in a smart way.”
Right now she is focusing on learning more about the UNBC research community “What I am trying to do is find a way to enhance our connection with the industries and small and medium sized enterprises around us. That is where I think we need to do a bit more work.”
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A short backgrounder for those interested in such things.
http://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/DrRanjanaBird.aspx
In 2010, the global ranking of UNBC’s research output by scimagoir was 1929. In 2010 with 887 output, UNBC was ranked at 55 in Canada.
In 2011, with 933 output (46 more), UNBC was ranked 62 in Canada and 2083 in the world. See: http://www.scimagoir.com/pdf/sir_2011_world_report.pdf
In 2012 with 956 output (23 more), UNBC was ranked lower at 67 in Canada and dropped almost 300 in the world rank to 2381.
The problem is that research and creating industry link is not a high priority in UNBC and one publication per year is deemed satisfactory (or even none for some). In this regard UNBC is performing poorly despite all the federal and provincial funding and several research chairs.
During the past 16 years, UNBC has also pushed away several people with research performance above the average who had research and industry grants (i.e. top 10% or A mark), which is another dimension of the problem.
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