A Guide to Research and Scholarship at GPRC

GPRC Research and Innovation is a support office which strives to promote a culture of scholarship at GPRC. We aim to help researchers on our staff achieve funding success and research impact. We can offer assistance with proposal development, funding applications, budgeting and financial reporting, establishing and managing collaborations and partnerships, facilitating student research, etc.

Our office will help you...

• Strategize and network to create and foster research partnerships
• Find information about awards including deadlines, amounts, and eligibility criteria
• Strengthen your funding proposal
• Find external grant opportunities
• Find funding support and partnerships for student projects
• Access internal award opportunities

All funding applications, internal or external, require approval by GPRC before they can proceed. Please consult with GPRC Research and Innovation early in your application process to ensure your application is as strong as possible and receives all necessary approvals ahead of the deadline.

What does research at GPRC look like?

Research: an undertaking intended to extend knowledge through disciplined inquiry or systematic investigation.

GPRC is not only a place of teaching; it’s also a place of learning. GPRC encourages lifelong learning by all students and employees and celebrates creative and innovative work.

As GPRC moves toward university status, supporting research and other scholarly activities is an increasingly vital part of our mandate. Research can take many different forms. At GPRC we sometimes use the term “scholarship” to encompass the many different types of research and innovative activities in which GPRC faculty, staff and students tend to partake. In 2019, GPRC’s mission statement was amended to include a reference to the creation of knowledge:

Creating and connecting knowledge, experience and community one life at a time.

This small but important change occurred in part to fulfill the Government of Alberta’s requirements for degree-granting institutions. The new statement also better reflects the vision of our College to become a leader in scholarship and research, which are the means by which we create knowledge and fulfill our mandate. Supporting faculty scholarship remains a top priority of GPRC as we head toward university status in the coming years. For a brief overview of current faculty scholarship and expertise, please visit our Faculty Experts webpage.

GPRC’s Five Realms of Scholarship

We have embraced a model of scholarship that meets the unique and complex contexts of the College’s people, location, history, and mandate. This model incorporates five realms of scholarship: discovery, integration, application, teaching, and practice.

• Discovery and Creation: Applied research, scholarly or artistic work, visual art, literature, academic research, invention of new technology.
• Application: Application of knowledge to larger social/industrial/economic governance needs; engagement with the broader community for mutual benefit.
• Integration: Identifying patterns and trends; synthesizing existing information and ideas for new perspectives; interdisciplinary; cross-trades/professions.
• Practice: Increasing personal depth of knowledge and currency in one’s own profession/discipline/trade.
• Teaching and Learning: The systematic study of teaching and learning to obtain a deeper understanding of pedagogical theory and practice and to inform new practice.

For examples and more information about the five realms of scholarship, click here.