Executive Summary

Ryerson University has had another successful year across a range of scholarly, research and creative activities, and the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation is pleased to highlight some of our community’s achievements.

In the 2017–18 fiscal year, Ryerson’s overall research funding increased to $48.8 million and involved work with 265 funding partners – a notable gain over the previous year. Funding from Tri-Council agencies reached approximately $16.7 million and included the addition of three new Canada Research Chairs (CRCs), bringing our total number of CRC allocations to 20. Ryerson received an additional $19.2 million from non-Tri-Council sources, including municipal, provincial and federal funding, from agencies such as the Toronto Police Service and the Southern Ontario Water Consortium.

Ryerson significantly expanded its collaborations with industry and community partners, in line with our belief that partnerships build bridges between the university and society, and between ideas and applications. In 2017–18, industry and community funding totaled $22.7 million, including partnerships with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. (MLSE) and Google Inc.  

Beyond just funding, our faculty have been recognized through noteworthy awards and accolades. Among these recognitions, this year, Ryerson saw the election of one new fellow to the Royal Society of Canada’s Academy of Science and two new members to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. 

Our faculty have also worked hard to reach out beyond Ryerson, to mobilize knowledge and create impacts in the economy and society. Our faculty had a total of 57 invention disclosures in 2017–18, and continued to move research from the lab to the world. 

Our one-of-a-kind incubation Zones created 534 full-time jobs, brought 971 new products and services to market, and served 33,496 new national and international customers. In addition, our internationally connected Incubate Innovate Network of Canada continued to serve the Zone Learning ecosystem through the support of 240 new clients, 136 new programming events and a host of startup and accelerator services. Social innovation also remains an important part of Ryerson’s mission, and programs like The RBC Immigrant, Diversity and Inclusion Project enable our researchers to work directly with underserved communities and to help improve the lives of many Canadians. Traditional knowledge mobilization metrics have remained strong, with 1,315 academic publications and a 20.4% increase in citations of Ryerson researchers by other scholars over the previous fiscal year.      

In addition to faculty achievements, this report highlights the next generation of talent, with Ryerson students receiving support from Mitacs and the Ontario Centres of Excellence. It is a great pleasure to witness our student researchers being recognized with a number of prestigious awards, prizes, fellowships and publications.  

Throughout, this report shares a selection of scholarly, research and creative projects made possible by funding awarded in 2017–18.