A special issue dedicated to Trent's continued research success

A little bragging is in order. Trent University has an enviable reputation among small universities in Canada, both for the amount of research dollars we attract, and for national and international recognition received by faculty who conduct that research.

Day or night, on campus and around the globe, Trent University researchers are involved in studies with global significance.

Research projects are as varied as the number of faculty and include:

• Assessing water quality
• Unraveling the mysteries of sleep
• Perfecting technology to rid the earth of landmines
• Understanding and helping prevent sexual assault
• Protecting forests and other natural habitat, and
• Studying the long-term effects of brain damage

Significantly, many of the projects cross disciplines and use science and social science techniques to help resolve complex problems. For example, our researchers are involved in a $9 million ecosystem project to manage watersheds in Ecuador and Mexico. This work involves environmental scientists, foresters, hydrologists and sociologists in a project to teach communities and universities to work together to improve water quality and supply.

Closer to home, researchers in Canadian Studies, history and political studies are working together in the Haliburton Highlands to develop a natural resource management plan for the region which takes into account cultural, historical and environmental considerations.

The success of our faculty members in their fields of research is one of the truly remarkable accomplishments of Trent University. Not only do we outperform every other university of our size across Canada, but on a per capita basis we outdo most of the big institutions as well. Last year, for example, external research funding for Trent totalled $6.3 million, or roughly double the amount received just five years earlier. According to Maclean's magazine, Trent now ranks at the top of all Ontario universities in the primarily undergraduate category in terms of per-capita funding to its researchers.

Trent has had a 44 per cent increase in nserc/mrc funding per eligible faculty member and a 5.5 per cent increase in sshrc funding. In 1999-2000, the average $37,859 in grants among science faculty eligible for nserc/mrc funding was the highest among small universities in Canada. The average sshrc funding of $13,040 among eligible Trent faculty in the humanities and social sciences was third among small universities in Canada.

This special issue of the Trent Report celebrates just some of the people behind the research that earns Trent its proud reputation.