Research Institutes & Centres

Brock University is committed to fostering excellence in transdisciplinary research. This type of research occurs by bridging disciplines to come together to solve complex problems. They integrate methods and theoretical approaches to better tackle pressing contemporary issues and generate knowledge breakthroughs for our increasingly complex 21st century reality.

We take fresh, dynamic, creative approaches to identifying – and addressing – challenges in the world around us.

Below is a list of research Institutes and Centres.

Institutes

Brock-Niagara Validation, Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute

The Brock-Niagara Validation, Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute (VPMI) is a collaborative hub connecting Brock researchers and students with industry partners. It integrates technical expertise and innovation at Brock University with “upstream” scientific equipment partners and “downstream” southern Ontario businesses. It is rooted in a state-of-the-art technology adoption centre in the heart of Niagara’s bioproducts and chemical manufacturing clusters, providing industry with technological solutions and access to highly skilled talent while weaving seamless development and implementation of innovation into the production practices and processes of partner companies. Facilitating collaborations between Brock University researchers and industrial partners will mean increased training opportunities and experiential learning for students and industry personnel involved in the collaborative projects. These partnerships will strengthen key clusters of innovation and production for the region, and increased competitiveness and sustainability for southern Ontario’s small- to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the commercialization of new and innovative technologies, products and processes.

Canada-Caribbean Institute

Founded by Brock University and The University of the West Indies, the Canada-Caribbean Institute is dedicated to connecting scholars from across Canada and the Caribbean to collaborate on vital economic, environmental, and social issues that contribute to the shared prosperity of both regions.

Lifespan Development Research Institute

This focuses on community-based research in mental health and biological, social, and psychological adjustment across the lifespan. Staff develops research partnerships with the local community and shares with the community knowledge that comes from the research. Plans are underway to offer a new post-Masters certificate program in Clinical Psychology and Counselling, involving community-based internships. The increased contact between the community and Brock University due to the certificate program and new partnerships will assist faculty research and improve the area’s access to good mental health care.

Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI)

This was developed in partnership with the Grape Growers of Ontario and the Wine Council of Ontario. Established in 1996, CCOVI is a successful, internationally recognized institute for the grape and wine industry. It focuses on research priorities of the Canadian grape and wine industry and the continuing educational needs of that community.

Niagara Community Observatory

This engages in research both on its own initiative and by working with other organizations. Its major research focuses on the Niagara area, but with reference to how the Niagara area is situated in the provincial, national, binational, and international spheres. The observatory produces non-partisan, evidence-based research. It fosters the sharing of research by diverse elements of the community who might be working on the same issues from different perspectives.

Posthumanism Research Institute

This seeks to investigate the status and limits of the “human” in an era in which multiple crises – global warming, superintelligent computers, genetic engineering, and massive species extinction, to name but a few – mark the precariousness of exclusively human-centred practice and thought. Our transdisciplinary research unit, in collaboration with other likeminded centres, institutes, and scholars across the globe, is committed to the idea that humanity’s perseverance in the coming centuries will require collaboration with agents (animal, vegetable, fungal, viral, mineral, and digital) besides those formerly classified as “human.”

Social Justice Research Institute

The Social Justice Research Institute (SJRI) is a vibrant collective of faculty from Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, Applied Health Sciences and Library Services brought together by a shared concern for social justice. The Institute’s primary mission is to nourish the construction and mobilization of knowledge that addresses contemporary social problems, opens pathways to progressive social change, and ultimately, helps to build a more just society in and beyond the Niagara Region.

Centres

Brock Functional Inclusive Training Centre

This is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people across the lifespan, including older adults. As well, the Centre focusses on individuals with an array of health conditions, chronic diseases and risk factors such as obesity and type II diabetes. The centre co-ordinates programs, links researchers to groups in Niagara and partners with local, provincial and national organizations to set up networks of excellence. Researchers come from a variety of disciplines to address the biological, psychological and social determinants of health. The centre’s mission is to promote health, prevent disease and work to help rehabilitate/reintegrate people.

Centre for Bone & Muscle Health

This brings together researchers from the Departments of Kinesiology and Health Sciences. They work with colleagues from other institutions to develop a greater understanding of the functioning and adaptability of muscle tissue. They also work to better understand how this tissue contributes to health and disease. In the past two decades, the role of muscle in overall health maintenance has proven to be significant.

Centre for Business Analytics

Operated by Brock University’s Goodman School of Business, the Centre for Business Analytics (CBA) brings together faculty from various disciplines across the University, as well as alumni and industry partners, to support an interdisciplinary team of data analytics researchers, act as a source of expertise for both public and private sectors, and foster a training hub for the next generation of data scientists. The research hub strengthens interdisciplinary research collaboration on data analytics across the University.

Centre for Healthy Youth Development through Sport

A research hub through which people, information and action flow to integrate research, evidence-based practices and implementation strategies that optimize and support healthy physical and psychosocial youth development through sport in Niagara and beyond. The Centre acts as a knowledge broker for youth sport organizations; fosters quality and sustainable community sport programming that supports healthy youth development; and provides quality learning opportunities to Brock students through active and experiential education.

 

Centre for Sport Capacity

This draws on the collaboration of faculty, students, colleagues from other institutions, and experts from the sport community. It acts in research and granting collaboration, community outreach, and international engagement to examine how individuals within organizations can build and utilize ‘capacity’ for the overall improvement of Canadian sport. As both a research and development centre, the CSC is the nucleus through which people, research, information, funding, and policy development flow to create and deliver ongoing skills-based training for large numbers sport volunteers with key administrative functions.

Certified General Accountants of Ontario Research Excellence Center (CGA)

The purpose of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario Research Excellence Center is to provide support for innovative accounting research that will drive the profession forward, and for initiatives that help create an enriched learning environment for our future business leaders.

Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC)

This brings together faculty from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to research how society can best move forward in a time where the earth’s natural, social, and economic resources are being threatened. The basic challenge of “sustainability” is to map out ways in which people and societies can live within the limits of our physical and natural world to safeguard our planet’s life support system. Partners from across Brock University and beyond collaboratively examine issues of: water and environmental resources; meanings and measurements of sustainability; climate change, adaptation and transformation; science and public policy; and, social justice, development and health. The Centre embraces Brock’s privileged location in a Biosphere Reserve and draws upon the UNESCO framework for understanding, innovating, and measuring all aspects of sustainability through education, science and culture.

ARTIndustria (Derek Knight and Franc Petric), Untitled (Un beau fleuve), 2017, neon, aluminum and switching mechanism. Installation view, Silo City, Buffalo.

Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture

The Research Centre in Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Culture facilitates the implementation of interdisciplinary methodologies in cooperative projects in the creative arts by establishing networks of researchers and creators across faculties at Brock and beyond the University.