In accepting the position of director, health research and education, I took on responsibility for providing leadership in the domain of health research and education, liaising with community partners and external agencies involved in health-related activity, and providing strategic advice to the institution to help raise the profile of this activity at UVic.

I report jointly to the associate vice-president academic planning and to the vice-president research. I serve as chair of the health research and education council (HREC), a committee comprised of the deans of Graduate Studies, Science, Social Sciences, Humanities, Human and Social Development, Education, and the Division of Medical Sciences, as well as several centre directors (aging, youth in society, addictions research, Aboriginal health, biomedical research, and early childhood research and policy).

Health research and educational programming takes place in almost all faculties at UVic. Because this activity is diffused across campus, the institution lacks a coherent point of reference to describe this activity to the external world. There is no obvious gateway into the health research and education community at UVic through the web.

Most universities across Canada use a faculty of medicine, a faculty of health science or some other health professions faculty or program as the entry-point for communicating about health-related activity, including activities of units and faculty members outside of these faculties/units. At UVic, the Island Medical Program (IMP) is shared with UBC and UVic appointments servicing the IMP. They are housed in the Division of Medical Sciences, a small faculty-like unit.

There are professional schools of nursing, social work, clinical psychology, counselling psychology, kinesiology, health information science, and child and youth care but these are not all housed in one faculty. The largest faculty entity involved in health (Human and Social Development) does not have the word "health" in the title.

In addition to core programs in the faculties of Human and Social Development, Social Sciences and Education, health- related education and research also takes place in the faculties of Law, Business, Humanities, Science, Engineering, and Fine Arts, as well as in the Division of Continuing Studies.

A number of interdisciplinary research centres and entities have a major focus on health. These include: Centre for Aboriginal Health, Centre for Additions Research of BC, Centre for Biomedical Research, Centre for Youth and Society, Centre on Aging, and the UVic-Genome BC Proteomics Centre. See a list of health-related programs and centres at UVic.

Rather than focusing health-related activities through a particular unit, the UVic leadership wishes to make the focal point of this activity reside at the level of the entire institution and that takes advantage of its interdisciplinary strengths. In light of this, I proposed to HERC that a narrative for health research and education be developed through which to create the desired focus the institution needs to more effectively communicate with the outside world.

Throughout the first six months of my appointment, I met with educational units, research centre directors and faculty affiliates, students, and members of the administrative staff to discuss my position and describe a process of faculty engagement to develop a health narrative. I also assembled a data base of approximately 280 faculty involved in health research and/or education.

Starting in January, 2011, I sent letters to every faculty member in the data base inviting them to participate in a discussion about health research and education at UVic, the university's predicament, and the proposed narrative. Through this, I held a series of 12 meetings with approximately 150 interested faculty members.

In addition to providing me with the opportunity to meet colleagues at UVic working in health- related activities, the narrative meetings also allowed faculty members to meet others interested in health. Discussions were very productive and several ideas emerged regarding how the university might improve conditions for health research, provide new educational opportunities, and strengthen the sense of community for students, faculty and staff. Of course, raising the university's profile in health research and education will require more than a single activity or event.

This narrative identifies several activities and actions the university can take to improve its profile in the health domain. Taken together, these activities and actions constitute a "strategic plan" for the director of health research and education.

The diversity of health research and education activity at UVic also embodies a range of approaches, from specific work on particular aspects of disease processes to understanding global processes and conditions that influence health outcomes. Over the course of the narrative discussions, the following descriptions emerged:

• Health is central to the human experience.
• Health research and education at the University of Victoria is concerned with understanding factors that enable humans to flourish and factors that protect us from vulnerability, and to use this understanding to improve health outcomes.
• This activity encompasses multiple dimensions of the human experiences including biological processes, the life course, systems of human caring, policy, technology and innovation, and relationships with the environment.

I am working with the UVic Communications office to build this narrative into units, programs and centres across the university.

We are also developing a gateway to health research and education for the university web site. This gateway will allow easy access for prospective students, for faculty and for our community partners access information on research activities and educational programs at UVic. The site will contain links to the UVic community and contain information about new programs, research activities and other news of relevance to health research and education.

Talking business cards

A related idea that came up over the course of our discussions was to develop an alternative to the expertise database, which is incomplete and not terribly "lively."

The notion of a "talking business card" was discussed, whereby faculty members would provide a brief (under one minute) video of themselves describing their research interests. These clips would be searchable using key words and would put a face to a name.

By starting with similar wording (My name is... and my interest in the role that health plays in the human experience is....) these video clips would reflect the spirit of the narrative and create consistency in the message we are trying to deliver. The UVic Communications office is developing a proposal for this activity and we anticipate starting to make the videos in the fall of 2011.

Undergraduate program

One way to better integrate the research and teaching mandates of the university is to better align the activity of the research centres with educational programs and opportunities for specialty designation.

At present, most undergraduates cannot get a specialty designation in Aboriginal health, addictions, aging, biomedical research, disability, early child development, or youth in society even though these substantive areas of interest exist in research centres.

Centres, by definition, involve multiple faculties and several faculty members who are already teaching courses in in-line programs. Allowing students to acquire a specialty designation on their transcripts aligned with the research centres would potentially expand the pool of graduates interested in pursuing further studies in these areas of substantive interest, and create better consistency between programs and research interests. Those students attending other universities with a specialty designation on their transcripts would be ambassadors for the research centres and help to raise UVicís profile in these areas.

A proposal is being drafted for an undergraduate minor in health studies that would allow for specialty designation for addictions, aging, aboriginal health and disability. Other sub-specialty designations could be added to involve other research centres. The aim is to the proposal brought to senate in the 2011-12 academic year.

Graduate program

The Social Dimensions of Health (SDH) program was offered for the first time in the 2010-11 academic year. Feedback from the students has been generally positive and several great suggestions have been brought forward by them to help improve the program.

The SDH program was intended to provide an opportunity for graduate students wishing to align their research interests with those of research centres to do so without having to enrol in either existing academic programs (nursing, psychology or education, for example) or as students without a cohort in the interdisciplinary graduate program. In March, 2011, I became the director of the SDH program, and am working to sharpen the focus of the two required fundamentals courses in response to student feedback.

The colloquium series that is also part of the SDH required course complement provides an opportunity to engage with faculty members from across the university whose research relates broadly to activities of research centres. The series schedule is currently being developed.

The neurosciences graduate program is anticipated to be offered in the 2011-12 academic year. This program builds upon strengths in the Division of Medical Sciences, Biology, Psychology, Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education and other units on campus.

Grants facilitation

Several faculty expressed the desire for access to a grants facilitator - a person knowledgeable about granting councils and related deadlines, scope of interest for targeted programs and special competitions, basic budget items allowed or excluded, etc. to support faculty applications to CIHR and MSFHR.

There is a diversity of practices across the campus community with respect to grant support: some units provide internal grant review, others do not. Investment in grant facilitation should translate into increased success rates in competitive processes. Need for support has increased with the decision of SSHRC to no longer fund health research.

The vice-president research and faculty deans have agreed to run a pilot project to provide funding for grants facilitation within each faculty, though this is not exclusively for health research.

Information flow

Communicating information about research opportunities could be improved. I will be working with the Office of Research Services to better co-ordinate the circulation of information and to ensure that lists of health researchers in accurate and up-to-date.

Idea: a large-scale event to raise community awareness and provide opportunities for university advancement

One idea that arose through the narrative process was to identify an overarching theme for the university to explore over the course of a year that would provide a vehicle to showcase the depth of expertise and interest in health at UVic.

The example cited involved the brain, and the various ways in which researchers at UVic are interested in the brain in relation to human health and function. For example, we could look at the way the brain shapes health and function over the life course, the influence of substance use upon the brain, brain function in neurotypical people and non-typical people, how adaptive technologies might restore function in persons experiencing brain injury or otherwise lacking functional capacity, and so on.

As imagined, the event would take several months to organize. There would be an opportunity to involve the development office in the year-long celebration as a means to potentially acquire new resources to support the research of the UVic community.

I'd welcome any feedback you'd care to provide. If you have feedback or would like more information about these discussions, please contact Michael Hayes, Director of Health Education and Research, at mhayes@uvic.ca.