Priority 3 – Sustainable research

For the next five years, Université Laval is taking a research and innovation approach strongly focused on sustainable development. We will measure the extent of our transformative capacity and the impact of our community’s contribution to major global issues using social, economic, and environmental indicators. 

Université Laval’s research and innovation work addresses a wide variety of issues and challenges that affect societies and the planet. This plan makes an important contribution to sustainable development by mobilizing our research and innovation community around nine cross-cutting themes. The wide variety of projects and initiatives underway, along with emerging and promising fields, will contribute to these themes, which address increasingly complex scientific and societal challenges. The University will build on these themes to broaden our horizons, encourage collaboration around shared issues, and welcome all disciplines and research approaches. Certain themes may also be linked within the framework of major interdisciplinary and intersectoral research initiatives that tackle global issues such as the impact of climate change or ecohealth. Our ultimate goal is to develop solutions that benefit both people and the planet while following best practices in terms of ethics, responsible research, and equity, diversity, and inclusion. 

We will also use this development plan to educate members of our research community about the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals matrix and encourage them to find ways to contribute to attaining them. This approach is consistent with the sustainability approach we launched in 2007 through which we became a world leader in this area.
 

Sustainable development at the core of the University’s vision

In seeking out and transmitting knowledge, the University is profoundly committed to the collective, long-term well-being of the community. The University’s sustainable development approach is centred on a shared vision expressed through various components and supported by the valuable contribution of research units such as Institut EDS.