Current Research
Realizing Rural Resilience
The world is increasingly faced with conditions of rapid change. Economic development is influenced by change in everything from technology to climate. Rural places have unique characteristics that influence how communities adapt to change. The Regional Innovation Chair's current research explores what rural economic development looks like under conditions of rapid change and uncertainty, focusing on human capacity, technology and innovation, and infrastructure and services.
Current Projects Include:
- Digital Readiness: An Evaluation of Rural Broadband Delivery Models in British Columbia
- Rural communities are increasingly playing active roles in improving rural connectivity. The overarching goal of this project was to better understand what different models of community involvement in connectivity exist and the related benefits and challenges.
- Project Reports:
- Navigating Rural: Place-Based Transit Solutions for Rural Canada - in collaboration with University of Guelph and Simon Fraser University
- Remote Controlled - the impacts of disruptive technologies in the Canadian mining sector - in collaboration with the University of Waterloo
- Smart Specialization in Non-Metro Canadian Regions - in collaboration with OCAD University
- The project objective is to set up a framework that small rural communities can use to make living, renewable innovation strategies for their communities. Our hope is to help communities identify their own strengths and areas of potential action, and create the most suitable strategies to pursue innovation based on these characteristics.
- The Boundary: Literature Review
- The Boundary: Preliminary Findings on a Small Innovation System