The CRC Program’s Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The Government of Canada and the CRC Program are committed to excellence in research and research training for the benefit of Canadians. Achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to seize opportunities and for responding to global challenges. As such, the program is committed to the federal government’s policies on non-discrimination and employment equity .
The history of underrepresentation in the CRC program demonstrates that systemic barriers for individuals from the four designated groups in the research ecosystem are systemic and persistent. Given the CRC program’s mandate to support research excellence and that being a Canada Research Chair is advantageous to the research careers and reputations of academics, all excellent researchers must have equal access to the program. Equity targets are tools used by the program and institutions to address barriers to participation in the program.
All researchers who participate in the CRC program must meet the program’s excellence requirements. This is assessed in a rigorous, two-step process: first, during the recruitment stage managed by the institution and, secondly, during the peer review process after the individual is nominated to the program. Only individuals recommended for funding through the program’s peer review process are awarded a CRC.
Queen’s is committed to excellence in research and research training for the benefit of Canadians and to achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise. Queen’s University has in place many institutional supports for these values and regularly monitors and reports on its progress in achieving inclusive goals. Queen’s University demonstrates its commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion by ongoing self-study and by implementing best practices on an ongoing basis. The research community at Queen's is committed to and recognizes that building a culture of diversity is a socially responsible approach that actively removes discrimination and barriers to inclusion to provide benefits that reach beyond Queen's University. At Queen's, we recognize that diversity advances research for the greater good by valuing alternate perspectives, thereby unlocking creative potential and stimulating novel collaborations. To that end, Queen's values its responsibility to promote equity in the employment of women, racialized/visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities; Queen's is an advocate for equity within the Canada Research Chairs Program. Queen's commits to evaluating representation of the four Designated Groups listed above within its Canada Research Chair Program and commits further to striving proactively to meet and to maintain its equity targets among the exceptional researchers recruited to this program.
(Approved by Queen's University Senate, November 28, 2017.)
Queen’s strategies for raising awareness of its commitment to and the benefits of EDI within the CRCP and the broader research enterprise include:
- Queen's 2020-21 Employment Equity Plan.
- The Queen's Equity Appointments Process (QEAP) : an innovative web application that collects, tracks, and reports on employment equity data.
- The creation of an Associate Vice-Principal (Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion) and Associate Vice-Principal (Indigenous Initiatives and Reconciliation) to enact EDI across the university.
- The Principal’s Declaration of Commitment to Address Systemic Racism through the critical examination of the roles each one of us may play in its perpetuation and in the practices and policies that may support persistent inequities.
- The creation of the Indigenous Council and its Faculty and Staff Recruitment, Retention and Support (FSRRS) Sub-Council.
- The creation of an Indigenous Research Advisor position to support Indigenous-related research and to train and support researchers in Indigenous epistemologies and community-based research.
- The Diversity and Equity Assessment and Planning (DEAP) Tool , developed by Queen’s Equity Services: a self-audit tool for internal Units to better understand the environments and climate relating to equity and diversity in their Units.
- The creation of the CRC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion working group to generate further tactics in support of EDI initiatives, including the development of EDI in Research Design training tools for researchers.
We invite you to view the EDI Progress Report (PDF 926 KB) for more information on these and many more exciting initiatives at Queen’s University.
Allocation of Canada Research Chairs:
Queen’s University’s current Canada Research Chair allocation, as determined by the Tri-agency Institutional Programs secretariat (TIPS), includes 48 CRC’s Chairs divided across tri-agencies and tiers per the table below.
| CIHR | NSERC | SSHRC | TOTAL | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 1 | Tier 2 |
| 6 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 22 | 26 |
The Tri-agency Institutional Programs secretariat completes a national re-allocation process every five years. The number of Chairs allocated to an institution is calculated based on the research grant funding received from the three granting agencies—the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)—in the three years prior to the year of the allocation.
The national total of 2,148 regular CRC allocations are distributed by area of research as follows:
- 837 Chairs (39%) in natural sciences and engineering
- 837 Chairs (39%) in health
- 474 Chairs (22%) in the social sciences and humanities
To contextualize these numbers, please see Overall Statistics of the CRC program across the nation.
The Queen’s University Canada Research Chair utilization spreadsheet is maintained by the Canada Research Chair Program and includes the number of Canada Research Chairs allocated to Queen’s, how many are filled and by whom, and types of “flex” moves. Profiles of CRCs, Canada Excellence Research Chairs and Canada 150 Research Chairs at Queen's are highlighted at the Research at Queen's .
Institutional Requirements for Establishing Equity Targets
Institutions participating in the CRC Program must establish and meet institutional equity targets to ensure that individuals who often face systemic barriers in employment participate in the program. The program monitors the institutions’ progress toward meeting their established targets.
Review Population-Based Institutional Equity Targets 2021 to 2029 on the CRC Program website.
All researchers who participate in the program are required to meet the program’s excellence requirements. This is assessed in a rigorous two-step process: first, during the recruitment stage managed by the institution and subsequently during the peer review process after the individual is nominated to the program. Only individuals who are recommended for funding through the program’s peer review process are conferred a Canada Research Chair award.
Queen’s University Equity Targets
In keeping with the goal of achieving a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive Canadian research enterprise, Queen’s has established CRC equity targets for each of the Four Designated Groups. The equity target-setting methodology implements incremental targets, based mainly on Canada’s population (2016 Census), as follows: racialized individuals 22%, Indigenous Peoples 4.9%, persons with disabilities 7.5%, and women and gender equity-seeking groups 50.9%.
Queen’s University’s equity targets and the number of chairholders who have identified with each of the Four Designated Groups are summarized in the chart below. These data can also be found on the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Practices Canada Research Chairs website . The information in the table below reflects the number of individuals who self-identified as members of the Four Designated Groups as of July 1, 2024.
Queen's University Equity Targets for the 2021-2029 Period
| Equity Target Deadlines | Indigenous Peoples | Persons with disabilities | Racialized Individuals | Women and Gender Equity-Seeking Groups | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target % | Target Chair # | Target % | Target Chair # | Target % | Target Chair # | Target % | Target Chair # | |
| December 2022 | 1.50% | 1 | 4.50% | 2 | 16.00% | 7 | 33.00% | 15 |
| December 2025 | 2.25% | 1 | 5.25% | 2 | 17.50% | 8 | 37.00% | 17 |
| December 2027 | 3.50% | 2 | 6.25% | 3 | 19.90% | 9 | 44.00% | 20 |
| December 2029 | 4.90% | 2 | 7.50% | 4 | 22.00% | 10 | 50.90% | 23 |
Queen's representation of individuals from the four designated groups within active CRC chairs as of July 1, 2024
| Indigenous Peoples | Persons with disabilities | Racialized Individuals | Women and Gender Equity-Seeking Groups | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | (see below)* | (see below)* | 15 | 24 |
* Numbers lower than five were removed to protect the privacy of Canada Research Chair holders. To contextualize these numbers, please see the overall statistics for the Canada Research Chairs Program across the nation.
Note: This chart includes only nominations that have been publicly announced by the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat. These data reflect targets at July 1, 2024.
Effective December 2017, the Canada Research Chairs Program required all institutions with 5 or more chairs to develop their own Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plans to ensure that recruitment to CRC positions is undertaken in a manner that provides access to the greatest range of qualified candidates.
Queen’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan
The Canada Research Chairs Program Secretariat has highlighted the importance of its commitment “to correcting long-standing equity concerns and ensuring that all institutions meet and sustain their equity and diversity targets.” All universities with more than five Canada Research Chairs are required to develop an equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) action plan, indicating how the institution will introduce systemic, structured and sustainable change to foster the full participation of underrepresented designated groups, currently categorized as - women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities i.e. the Four Designated Groups (FDG). As the CRCP initiates data collection and analyses on other groups, including 2SLGBTQ+, there should be a better understanding of the full representation of diversity. Moreover, utilizing the lens of intersectionality deepens our understanding of the lived experience of researchers who self-identify in more than one group.
Building on the Queen’s Principal’s Implementation Committee on Racism, Diversity and Inclusion (2018 2019), Queen’s University has developed this action plan to identify potential barriers to equity and inclusion in the program at Queen’s and specific actions to address them.
The Vice-Principal Research is responsible for ongoing monitoring and updating of this plan and, in concert with other units (e.g., the Provost’s Office, the Human Rights and Equity Office, the Office of Indigenous Initiatives, deans, associate deans and departments/units), ensures that the plan is successfully enacted.
Governance and approval also ensure consistency with Queen’s EDI policies, The Queen’s University Administration’s Declaration of Commitment to Address Systemic Racism .
Monitoring and updating of the EDI Action Plan
The Vice-Principal Research is responsible for ongoing monitoring and updating of this plan and, in concert with other units (e.g., the Provost’s Office, the Human Rights and Equity Office, the Office of Indigenous Initiatives, deans, associate deans and departments/units), ensures that the plan is successfully enacted.
For more information on the implementation of Queen’s CRC Equity Action Plan or Queen’s equity, diversity and inclusion agenda, please contact one of the following individuals:
- Vice-Principal Research
355 King St W
Queen's University at Kingston, ON K7L 2X3
E-mail: canada.research.chairs@queensu.ca - Deputy Provost (Academic Operations and Inclusion):
74 University Avenue, Room 353, Richardson Hall
Queen's University at Kingston, ON K7L 3N6
Phone: 613-533-2020
E-mail: deputy.provost@queensu.ca
- Associate Vice-Principal (Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion):
Human Rights Office
B506 Mackintosh-Corry Hall
Telephone: 613-533-6886
Email: hrights@queensu.ca
CRC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan |
2023 Progress Report |
|---|---|
| View EDI Action Plan (PDF 1.7 MB) | View 2023 Progress Report (PDF 5.3 MB) |
Monitoring, Reporting, and Addressing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Concerns in Research
With oversight from the Provost and the Deputy Provost (Academic Operations and Inclusion), the Equity Office monitors progress, and reports regularly to the faculty union, the Deans, and the senior administration on progress toward increasing the representation of designated groups in the university’s academic ranks. These progress reports also form the basis of discussion for improving employment equity and may also be used to make policy recommendations to the Queen’s Senate.
During the recruitment process, the Equity Office, with the assistance of the Equity Representative, provides the Appointments Committee with confidential information on the diversity of the applicants who have applied to the position, and informs the Committee on how diverse the applicant pool remains as the Committee goes through the process of creating a long list of candidates, a short-list, a rank of applicants who are considered suitable for the job and finally, hiring. This information shows the academic unit whether equity targets have been met and allows units to develop a strategy to meet those targets.
The Equity Office staff includes the University Advisor on Equity and two Equity Officers who are available to address concerns during hiring and planning; they ensure that the appropriate senior administrators are engaged in addressing any concerns and, when needed, that an appropriate process to resolve concerns is enacted.
The Standing Research and Review Committee (SRRC), led by the Vice-Principal Research portfolio, has the responsibility of monitoring concerns and working collaboratively with the Institutional Strategic Research Committee, Provost’s Office, the Human Rights and Equity Office, and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives to address concerns or complaints if they do arise.
To report a concern to the SRRC, please contact the Associate Vice-Principal (Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion).
Questions on Equity and Diversity in Research
For more information on the implementation of Queen’s CRC Equity Action Plan or Queen’s equity, diversity and inclusion agenda, please contact one of the following individuals:
Past and Present Queen’s CRCs
Queen’s Canada Research Chairs improve our depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthen Canada's international competitiveness, and help train the next generation of highly-skilled people through student supervision, teaching, and the coordination of partnerships and collaborations.
View Queen's existing and past Canada Research Chairs