Research Centres, Institutes & Facilities

Here is a list of the Research Centers, Institutes and Facilities available through VIU.

Policies and procedures governing research centres/institutes.

• Alexandro Malaspina Research Centre
• Applied Environmental Research Laboratory (AERL)
• The Brain Electrophysiology and Neuropsychology Lab
• Community Based Research Institute
• Heritage Research Group
• Humanities Interdisciplinary Research Group
• Institute For Coastal Research
• International Center For Sturgeon Studies
• Literary Theory Research Group

• Media Research Lab (MRL)
• Recreation and Tourism Research Institute
Resilience Research Lab
• The Centre for Coastal Health
• The Centre for Shellfish Research
• The Fraud & Ethics Research & Education Centre

Facilities

• Deep Bay Field Station
• Centre for Shellfish Research Facility

The Alexandro Malaspina Research Centre, affiliated with the Liberal Studies Department, is dedicated to the life and works of the 18th-century Italian navigator, as well as to conducting, and developing English-language resources for the promotion of interdisciplinary research into navigation in the 18th century and first contact between indigenous and European people on the Pacific coasts of the Americas. The Centre supports international collaboration between scholars and enthusiasts with like interests, has hosted a number of symposia and public lectures, and has developed an extensive website. The first major publication stemming from the Centre's work, an annotated translation of Malaspina's philosophical work Meditation on Beauty in Nature, appeared in 2007.

The AERL facility includes a sample processing lab, a wet chemistry lab and a state-of-the-art instrument facility specializing in environmental chemical analysis by tradition and emerging methods. Our program includes pure and applied research related to analytical and environmental chemistry. We are on the leading edge of an evolution in 'bringing high precision chemical measurements to the sample' rather than the other way around. The central innovation in this work is a membrane interface that allows us to continuously analyze a flowing sample by passing chemical analytes to a mass spectrometer.

The Brain Electrophysiology and Neuropsychology Lab, housed in VIU’s Psychology Department, consists of microcomputer-based apparatus for stimulus presentation and EEG, EMG and behavioural response recording and analysis. Facilities include software and hardware for experimental control, data storage, analysis and imaging of brain activity during sensation, perception, cognition and behavioural response preparation. A new addition to the lab this coming year is an infrared video-based eye-tracker for application in a wide variety of research in collaboration with others in the Psychology Department as well as Faculty and Students from other disciplines. 

The main objectives of the Community Based Research Institute are to: promote the development of collaborations for research that are more closely linked to and serve community based work; develop a vision, guidelines and structure for social research that is dependent on the values, desires and needs of the community; create opportunities for an exchange of knowledge between community- based workers and academics; and, build capacity in the community and the University to conduct community based research by increasing knowledge of methods, and scientific processes of community based research. The Institute functions by inviting research questions from the community.  Collaborations are then developed with students and faculty from a variety of disciplines to address them.  This serves to promote a reciprocal relationship that allows community members to generate their own research questions, and, at the same time provide students with a unique opportunity for developing and carrying out real-life, relevant interdisciplinary research.

The Humanities Interdisciplinarity Research Group (HiRG) was launched at VIU in 2008-2009.  The aim of the group is to work as an internationally networked think-tank investigating the interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research models and methodologies that are currently being applied in the humanities, with a Canadian studies focus.  The first main pilot project was an examination of the use of interdisciplinary models of research in the study of the Canadian First Nations Residential School experience, as articulated and represented in literary and non-literary texts.  The main project partner was Professor Deborah Madsen, University of Geneva.  The second project for 2008-09 involved an examination of notions of trauma in Canadian fiction and First Nations writing.  This project also led to the further building of research capacity, with the main partner being Professor Carmen Concilio, University of Turin.  The group has sponsored two events at VIU, the first in conjunction with VIU Library, examining interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and the researching of eco-criticism in the humanities, with a guest presentation by Professor Laurie Ricou, Department of English, UBC, titled "Out of the Field Guide: Teaching the Bioregion" (VIU, March 27th, 2009) , and the second launching the book Image Technologies in Canadian Literature, edited by Carmen Concilio and Richard J. Lane (VIU, fall, 2009).

The ICSS will conduct research that has application in four main areas; wild populations, conservation hatcheries, commercial culture, and socioeconomics issues. A major goal of the Centre will be to facilitate cooperation between conservation and aquaculture activities at regional, national and international levels. To that end, a research team has been assembled that includes world-class and emerging new scientists from across Canada, the United States and Europe. The ICSS will provide the link necessary to form a cluster of industry, university, government and non-government organizations involved in sturgeon research.

The Literary Theory Research Group & Seminar for Advanced Studies in the Humanities was set up by Dr. Richard J. Lane and Dr. Daniel Burgoyne at VIU in 2007.  The group’s primary goals are: to provide leadership in humanities research at VIU; to provide a forum for upper level debate and dialogue within the humanities; to encourage VIU faculty to present work-in-progress and other early stage ideas and papers while also bringing in leading international speakers; to support a number of different research formats, such as the small group seminar, larger lectures, guest lectures, essay and book publications; to forge links with professional bodies and to gain a higher profile representation for VIU within the humanities at events such as the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The MRL provides a resource and collaborative locus for the community whose work adapts and advances computing techniques in humanities scholarship and pedagogy. Founded in 2002 with support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the BC Knowledge Development Fund and the VIU Foundation, work carried out at the MRL has as its focal points [1] the digital representation of image-, text-, and sound-based cultural artifacts, [2] the dissemination and study of these new digital artifacts, and [3] research into pedagogical concerns associated with computing in the humanities.

The Recreation and Tourism Research Institute (RTRI) was developed in 1996 to promote and support leisure research at Vancouver Island University among faculty, students and professionals. The Research Institute seeks to link researchers and practitioners and to mobilize knowledge in the leisure field.

Each year, faculty and undergraduate students engage in projects with various community and industry partners.

The Resilience Research Lab in the Psychology Department, a collaborative effort between faculty (Caroline Burnley and Ruth Kirson) and several students, engages in research in the area of resilience (the process of overcoming adversity) and develops practical applications for children and youth in our community.  An exciting new development is our status as an official site of the International Resilience Project, which takes a community-based approach to understanding resilience.  VIU, together with the Nanaimo community, will be involved in investigating what contributes to and what impedes resilience in Nanaimo with the goal of supporting the development of initiatives aimed at prevention and intervention.

The Center for Coastal Health (CCH) is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to identify and understand the interactions of human, animal and environmental health.

Based in Nanaimo, the CSR will serve the entire B.C. coast to support and respond to the research needs of a growing and diversifying shellfish aquaculture industry. The Centre will be doing technical and scientific research on topics including: enhancing industry competitiveness by contributing to improved production, new species and technologies, new products and realization of new opportunities; investigating environmental interactions, oceanography and knowledge necessary for environmental stewardship and sustainability; multidisciplinary studies needed to solve other problems faced by the industry and by coastal communities such as governance, economic benefit, political structures, social values and others; and contributing to the economic diversification of B.C.’s (coastal) communities by supporting the transfer of knowledge and development of the skilled workforce required.

Vancouver Island University's Fraud and Ethics Research and Education Centre is a multi-disciplinary occupational fraud & ethics research centre whose stakeholders are individuals, managers, professional associations, and public and private organizations wishing to manage fraud risks effectively while promoting an ethical culture; and forensic investigators, accountants, lawyers, law enforcement and others pursuing increased knowledge of fraud prevention, detection, and resolution.

The Deep Bay Field Station will cluster scientific, environmental, economic and public engagement programming into one facility thereby creating a centre of excellence and innovation to support sustainable shellfish aquaculture development and preservation of coastal ecosystems.

The Research Facility includes:

• Wet Laboratories
• Larval Laboratory
• Algal Culture Facility