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TRU, UBC Okanagan and UNBC create research pact

The universities are creating an inventory of equipment on campus, such as DNA sequencers

By Jessica Wallace

Kamloops This Week

Three universities are better than one.

That’s the idea behind a new research partnership Thompson Rivers University has formed with the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO).

“Basically, what it looks like is not three universities, but one mega-university in the Interior,” TRU president Alan Shaver said. “Working together to address problems that are particularly suited to the Interior.”

The Interior University Research Coalition (IURC) was announced at TRU on Dec. 15, a partnership two years in the making.

The idea was born from an initiative by TRU professor Lauchlan Fraser in recent years to collaborate with UNBC and UBCO researchers in applying for a Canada First Research Excellence Fund to establish a centre of excellency in ecosystem reclamation.

That application was unsuccessful, but paved the way for the universities to share resources and collaborate on future research projects.

“We realized, ‘Wow, this is powerful stuff,’” said Janice Larson, who will head the IURC office at UBCO. “Let’s keep doing it and let’s expand it to other research areas, as well.”

Representatives from all three universities were on hand for the announcement, rattling off multiple ways in which they will partner.

“There might be a piece of equipment at the Kelowna campus that might not be present in Kamloops or vice versa,” said Philip Barker, UBCO associate vice-president of research. “So, by creating a network that allows people to move really easily to access that equipment, we’re going to be able to do things we couldn’t do previously.”

The universities are creating an inventory of equipment on campus, such as DNA sequencers, high-end microscopes, lasers and manufacturing equipment.

In 2013, then-minister of advanced education Amrik Virk told KTW the university should fund research in creative ways, such as finding partners, endowments and gifts.