Research Strategy
A new roadmap for research at Queen’s
March 19, 2025
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The Strategic Research Plan charts an ambitious five-year action plan to enhance research inputs (funding), outputs (scholarship in all forms), and impact.
Queen’s has launched a new Strategic Research Plan (SRP) 2025-2030 aimed at advancing transformational research by building the support and infrastructure required for a thriving and agile research ecosystem in the modern world. The plan reflects on the university's 180-year legacy of research and innovation excellence and echoes institutional commitments to equity, inclusion, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SRP also ensures Queen’s meets the requirements of federal research funding programs.
"The Strategic Research Plan acknowledges that solving society’s most pressing problems requires curiosity, collaboration, and determination,” says Nancy Ross, Vice-Principal (Research). “The SRP reflects how Queen’s researchers are at the forefront of both disciplinary and interdisciplinary efforts and it outlines our commitment to members of the research community to provide the support needed to maintain and grow their impact. I want to thank our community for their participation in the development of the plan, which we are already bringing to life.”
Queen’s aims to be at the forefront of discovery and innovation and ranking within the top 10 of the U15 group of Canadian research-intensive universities.
Building on key institutional strategies, the SRP aligns with the Queen's Strategy and Global Engagement Strategic Plan, and the framework of the developing Queen’s Bicentennial Vision, to define the role of research in achieving our institutional mission. The plan identifies six themes of research focus where, based on existing and emerging strengths, we are poised for investment and impact. Interdisciplinary and interconnected in nature, the themes promote collaboration across faculties and disciplines to address complex global challenges. They are:
- Understanding the Earth and universe
- Promoting health and wellbeing and reducing the burden of disease
- Envisioning just futures and innovating in cultural expression
- Delivering materials for the future
- Advancing next-generation computing and analytics
- Building productive, inclusive, and sustainable societies
The SRP also charts an ambitious five-year action plan to enhance research inputs (funding), outputs (scholarship in all forms), and impact (e.g., prizes and awards). Goals include strengthening partnerships locally, regionally, and globally, and attracting and developing new talent, including research-driven early career faculty and students at all stages of their academic journeys. Queen’s aims to be at the forefront of discovery and innovation and ranking within the top 10 of the U15 group of Canadian research-intensive universities. This requires increasing our relevance to and alignment with major funding opportunities, the stewardship of our tier one research centres and institutes, and providing best-in-class research services and supports – from research security and advanced research computing to intellectual property support and stakeholder engagement.
“The SRP champions being agile, relevant, and responsive to opportunities that will provide further investment, attract talent, and build partnerships. Our research goals are ambitious and call on us to think and act boldly. Our success will be grounded in our shared commitment to collaboration and research excellence.”
– Dr. Nancy Ross
Vice-Principal (Research)
Led by the Vice-Principal Research portfolio, the SRP was developed through consultation with campus stakeholders, including the senior leadership team, department heads, the research community at large, as well as the Indigenous Knowledge, Curriculum, and Research Working Group.
For more information on the Strategic Research Plan, visit the Vice-Principal (Research) website.