Community
The Centre's commitment to the people it serves: openness, equity, and knowledge sharing.
Community Engagement Office
Our mission
Created in 2025, the Community Engagement Office (BECO) of the CRSM fosters meaningful relationships between researchers and the broader community.
By actively collaborating with a wide range of partners, including healthcare professionals, local organizations, residents, and policymakers, we ensure research that is relevant, inclusive, and beneficial to the community. We work together to create and share knowledge in primary care and health systems, in older adult care, in cancer care and in surgical sciences.
Through open dialogue and partnerships, we make knowledge accessible, amplify diverse voices, and promote positive changes in health and well-being.
Our activities
Awareness-raising and public education
- Organize workshops and events to share health research and raise public awareness.
- Produce videos to showcase the main research initiatives.
Community engagement in research
- Establish research partnerships with local organizations to align health research with community needs.
- Gather feedback from the community through consultations and surveys.
- Involve communities in the co-design of research projects.
- Promote two-way knowledge exchange between researchers and the public.
- Ensure that research is representative, inclusive, and reflects diverse perspectives.
- Create advisory committees for ongoing community participation.
Advocacy and political engagement
- Translate research into concrete recommendations.
- Organize forums to connect research with policy discussions.
Volunteer opportunities
- Involve staff and communities in research and awareness-raising efforts.
Who is it for?
- Researchers
- Healthcare personnel
- Local organizations
- General public
Knowledge transfer and mobilization
At BECO, we are committed to supporting research that puts people and communities at the heart of health solutions, particularly those with lived experience, while promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion.
We strive to build strong, lasting partnerships that integrate local health priorities into research. By working together, we co-create evidence-based projects that are culturally relevant and truly meet the needs of communities.
Our knowledge-sharing efforts aim to provide the right health information, in the right way, to the people who need it most.
Examples of knowledge mobilization activities
- 01Establishing partnerships with key stakeholders
- 02Co-production of knowledge mobilization products that meet the needs of knowledge users
- 03Community engagement in research
- 04Evaluation and impact assessment
Impacts
Strengthen learners' capacities
Inform decisions, processes, and/or practices of play-based, culturally relevant community programs to empower individuals and communities
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Statement on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
The St. Mary Research Centre (SMRC) is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in all aspects of its work, with a particular focus on research. We strive to ensure that our research practices are inclusive, representative, and equitable, both in our internal processes and in the knowledge we generate for the benefit of society.
We are committed to fostering a research environment where diverse perspectives are valued and integrated at every stage of the research process. This includes governance, partnership building, study design, implementation, dissemination, and impact evaluation. In doing so, we want to ensure that our work reflects and responds to the needs of the communities we serve.
The CRSM collaborates with scientists and partners to foster a culture of inclusion that promotes excellence in research. We believe that only the meaningful participation of diverse voices makes it possible to conduct rigorous, relevant, and accessible research.
We are committed to identifying and eliminating systemic barriers that affect underrepresented and equity-seeking groups, including but not limited to:
- Women and girls
- Adolescent girls and boys and young adults (ages 13–24)
- Older adults (60 years and over)
- Indigenous peoples
- Ethnocultural and racialized communities
- Persons with disabilities
- 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
Integrating EDI principles strengthens the research ecosystem and improves the quality, and the scientific and social relevance of our work, our findings, and the overall impact of research. It is essential to build a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse research community in order to produce innovative and impactful research that improves health outcomes and advances knowledge.
Statement on research assessment
The SMRC signs the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment
The SMRC has officially signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) — a global initiative aimed at improving how research and researchers are evaluated.
By signing DORA, we commit to:
- Emphasize the quality of the research, not just where it is published.
- Go beyond journal impact factors when evaluating research.
- Recognize all research outputs, such as datasets, software, and real-world impact, and not just publications.
Implications for the SMRC
- Be transparent about how hiring, promotion, and funding decisions are made.
- Emphasize the substance and impact of the work, particularly for early-career researchers.
- Value a wide range of research outputs and their impact in the real world.
Implications for SMRC scientists
- Prioritize scientific content over publication metrics in evaluations.
- Cite the original research to give proper credit.
- Use a variety of metrics to demonstrate the impact of your work.
- Advocate for fair and meaningful research assessment practices.
Knowledge transfer
Recordings of our knowledge-transfer activities, open to everyone.
Knowledge transfer →