Friday, February 7, 2025

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• Building inclusive research teams webinar coming up in March

• An update on the 2024 performance review process
• Warriors launch a new Indigenous logo
• Library provides update on ORCID pilot project
• New hours for Sustainable Transportation office and other notes

Building inclusive research teams webinar coming up in March

A message from the Office of the Vice-President, Research and International.

The Foundation: Building Inclusive Research Teams webinar will take place on Friday, March 7, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Research demonstrates that fostering inclusive research teams is integral to achieving research excellence. This presentation will guide researchers through the essential steps of identifying EDI barriers within their teams, developing actionable strategies to address these barriers, assessing the outcomes of their actions and using these insights to plan for the future. Additionally, the session will include a case study from senior leadership, highlighting the practical application and benefits of inclusive teams.

Please registerto receive the Zoom link to participate. Please note that this is a link to a new registration page. The original registration pages are no longer available due to a technical problem. Anyone who has already registered must re-register. Our apologies for this inconvenience.

Hub feature

The Hub is a resource library of important documents focused on EDI and Indigenous Research to support the UWaterloo community as they integrate EDI into their research designs and teams. The Hub was created as part of the Inclusive Research Team’s commitment to ongoing development and capacity building to support equitable and inclusive research practices.

This month’s feature highlights a resource from the Université de Sherbrooke: Inclusion of Team Members.

Upcoming webinars

What is GBA+ Anyway? An Introduction - Monday, March 24, 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Please register. Note that this is a link to a new registration page. The original registration pages are no longer available due to a technical problem. Anyone who has already registered must re-register. Our apologies for this inconvenience.

An update on the 2024 performance review process

A message from Human Resources.

As shared in the December 18 memo from Michelle Hollis, Chief Human Resources Officer, managers and employees are not required to complete forms for the 2024 performance year.Instead, we encourage managers and employees to focus on having meaningful performance conversations. These conversations should review 2024-25 plans, provide feedback on the 2024 year, and set goals for the year ahead.

To support these discussions, we have created conversation guides tailored for both managers and employees. Additionally, Organizational and Human Development (OHD) is offering workshops to help you prepare for these conversations:

• Foundations of Giving and Receiving Feedback (Two-week online course)
• Giving and Receiving Feedback with Intention (In-person workshop)

We hope these tools will support you in having productive and meaningful conversations.

You can register for the OHD workshops via Portal.

Warriors launch a new Indigenous logo

Roly Webster, Myeengun Henry, Jean Becker, Kyle Joedicke, and Chris Read at the logo launch event.

By Emily Brant. This is an excerpt of an article originally published on Waterloo News.

A new Indigenous logo for the Waterloo Warriors officially launched on Tuesday, February 4, in collaboration with Waterloo Athletics and Recreation and the Office of Indigenous Relations (OIR). A celebratory gathering took place at the Student Life Centre to unveil the new artwork and select merchandise featuring the new logo is now available at the W Store. In the spring term, the artwork, along with a territorial acknowledgement, will also be visible at the entrance of the Physical Activities Complex and the Columbia Icefield.

The logo was designed by Indigenous artist, Kyle Joedicke, a Cayuga Turtle Clan member of the Six Nations of The Grand River, who focused on incorporating the University of Waterloo’s culture of collaboration and problem-solving. The approach to developing the new Indigenous logo was genuinely collaborative and embodied several of the University’s values, including thinking differently and working together.  

Library provides update on ORCID pilot project

A message from the Library.

The two-year pilot project exploring a campus-wide approach to implementing the use of Open Researcher and Contributor Identifiers (ORCID) has reached a midway point. 

Focusing on a small group of the campus community (PhD students and post-doctoral researchers), the project has been working to identify key workflows that will allow staff to support researchers using ORCID’s Affiliation Tool. This tool allows researchers to accept a trusted organization to add research information to their ORCID record, saving them time to focus on their research.  

To date, 44 per cent of PhD students and 57 per cent of post-doctoral researchers have signed up for an ORCID and affiliated their account with the University of Waterloo. Through workshops and information sessions, we’re receiving positive feedback from researchers on the benefits of ORCID. 

ORCID is continuing to grow, integrating further into the research data lifecycle. Both Scopus and GitHub now allow for connection with ORCID. Works indexed on Scopus will auto-populate on ORCID records while the integration with GitHub ensures researchers are credited with their less traditional research outputs.

Since launching the pilot project, more journals and publishers are requiring an ORCID with manuscript submissions, including SAGE Publications, IEEE and Science journals. 

Grants and funders are also starting to recommend or require an ORCID as part of the application submission. The Fonds de recherche du Quebec (FRC) already requires an ORCID while both the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) joined the ORCID Canada Consortium last year, indicating their general support for ORCID. 

Waterloo’s ORCID pilot project will continue with outreach and engagement efforts through the fall 2025 term, with a final report to be shared in winter 2026. Further information on the project is available on the Libraries’ website: ORCID pilot project page and library guide to sign up for an ORCID and link your Scopus account. Questions can be directed to the Libraries’ Research Intelligence Project Analyst.

​New hours for Sustainable Transportation office and other notes

"We are excited to announce that starting Monday, February 10, the Sustainable Transportation team will be extending our operating hours," says an announcement from Sustainable Transportation. The new hours are:

• Mondays to Fridays, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

"Additionally, we will no longer be closing for lunch," the announcement continues. "Our office will remain open during all business hours to better serve your needs. We appreciate your cooperation and look forward to welcoming you during our new business hours."

Fantastic Alumni, Faculty, Staff and Retiree Day takes place tomorrow in the Physical Activities Complex. Cheer on the men’s and women’s Warriors Basketball teams as they take on the Algoma Thunderbirds. As part of the game day fun, the half-time traditions continue with the ever-popular Airplane Toss, where the best paper airplane pilots take home great prizes including a $500 Direct Travel gift card, camping gear, a Game Night Warrior Prize Pack and, of course, lots more. The FAD festivities get underway at 2:00 p.m.

The Canadian International Council (CIC) and the history department at St. Jerome’s University are hosting John Ibbitson on Monday, February 10. Ibbitson will be discussing his 2023 book “The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson, and the Making of Modern Canada.”

Ibbitson is Writer at Large for the Globe and Mail, having also served as chief political writer, political affairs columnist and bureau chief in Washington and Ottawa. His previous political books include Open and Shut: Why America Has Barack Obama and Canada Has Stephen Harper. A winner of the Governor General's Award, Ibbitson has been shortlisted for the Donner Prize, the National Newspaper Award, the Trillium Award, and the City of Toronto Book Award. Stephen Harper was a finalist for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction and won the 2015 Writer's Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. His latest book is titled The Nation’s Paper, the Globe and Mail in the Life of Canada.

The event takes place Monday, February 10 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on the second floor of SJU’s Academic Centre (Room 2003). Admission is free and light refreshments will be served.

Information Systems & Technology (IST) has published the latest in the Atlassian blog series entitledScheduled Atlassian Outage: Important Details for Users.