CRC position management

Waterloo’s commitment to the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion can be found throughout its library of University policies. Those policies relevant to the recruitment and management of CRCs include:

• Policy 3, Sabbatical and Other Leaves for Faculty
• Policy 14, Pregnancy and Parental Leaves (including adoption)
• Policy 33, Ethical Behaviour
• Policy 42, Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence
• Policy 59, Reduced Workload
• Policy 61, Religious Accommodation
• Policy 65, Equality in Employment
• Policy 76, Faculty Appointments

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The Office of the VPRI is responsible for general oversight of the CRC Program at the University of Waterloo. The Internal CRC Review Committee provides additional oversight in respect of both new and renewal nominations and use of the corridor of flexibility.

CRC allocations will be informed by equity considerations as well as Tri-agency funding. Decisions will be guided by the strategic priorities of the University, with oversight by the Vice-President, Research & International, Provost and President.

The process for allocating chair positions is as follows:

1. Any increase to a Faculty’s Chair allocation will take effect immediately.
2. Any decrease to a Faculty’s Chair allocation will be implemented as follows:
   • If that Faculty has an open Chair position, it will be withdrawn and either re-allocated to another Faculty in accordance with internal procedures or, if the Institution as a whole must lose a Chair position, returned to the CRCP.
   • If that Faculty does not have an open Chair position, the OVPRI will review allocations across the Institution to determine if there is an open Chair position elsewhere that could be returned to the CRCP to avoid having to wind-down a filled Chair. Inter-Faculty negotiations facilitated by the OVPRI will ensure the Chair position is returned as soon as possible.
   • If there is no flexibility across the University, the Faculty losing a Chair position will be required to initiate a wind-down of an existing Chair. To wind-down a Chair(s), that Faculty will work with the OVPRI to do so with minimal disruption to the Chairholder.
     • i.e. The Dean and Provost will ensure that the level of support (financial and non-financial) agreed at the outset continues until what would have been the normal end of the CRC term. In keeping with the CRC Program’s guidelines, the Chairholders will also retain their title until what would have been the end of their term.
   • To ensure a fair and transparent process for returning a filled Chair position, the first call for a phase-out will be a second-term Chairholder closest to the end of his/her second term or, if there is no second-term Chairholder, the Chairholder closest to the end of his/her first term, regardless of Tier.

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The Office of the VPRI will use/reverse flex moves as needed when allocating chairs to meet CRC program mandated equity targets.

In keeping with CRCP guidelines, Institutions may only use Canada Research Chair positions for emergency retention (i.e., where a position is offered without a competitive process to an individual to retain them within the institution) in very exceptional circumstances. The emergency retention mechanism may be used only by institutions that are meeting all of their equity targets, or in cases where the nomination contributes to meeting these targets. Currently, University of Waterloo has not met its CRCP-mandated Equity targets.
 

Please note: To ensure a fair, open, and transparent process, the University of Waterloo does not allow 3^rd term nominations and eliminated the option of using the emergency retention pathway effective January 1, 2018.

Please note: Faculties may choose to target job advertisements to any of the Four Designated Groups (FDG). View the recommendations for equity wording in job advertisements (see CAUT Authorization to Advertise for CRC Tier 1 and Tier 2 documents). Vacant CRC positions may be advertised internally, or advertised concurrently internally and externally. 

The selection committee must follow the steps below to ensure compliance with new CRC requirements for a position being advertised concurrently externally and internally. If you have any questions, contact the Office of the VPRI CRC manager.

Selection Committee

1. When a CRC allocation has been approved, contact the Office of the VPRI CRC manager to obtain information about Waterloo’s internal arrangements (financial and non-financial) for CRCs and a copy of the CRC Selection Committee Report.
   1. Use the Selection Committee Report to select and nominate a CRC.
   2. Submit the completed Selection Committee Report to the Office of the VPRI CRC manager for review prior to collecting signatures. Include the completed and signed Selection Committee Report with the Internal Nomination form and additional documents (also see step nine).
2. Establish a selection committee and follow all relevant University/Faculty/Departmental policies/guidelines (e.g. Policy 65, Policy 69) and CRC selection practices/policies to select new CRC nominees. The committee must:
   1. have more than one member,
   2. include one or more individuals from the FDG or have made concrete efforts to form a diverse committee, and
   3. include an equity champion. While equity is everyone’s responsibility, the champion will ensure that equity and diversity are considered throughout the selection process.
3. Contact the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism, to ensure all individuals involved in the selection process have undertaken equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) training within the last 12 months. If not, training must be completed before committee work is initiated.
4. Once EDI training is complete, decide the strategic area that will be filled by the chair position and the evaluation criteria that will be used to identify a nominee.
   1. Waterloo’s equity targets and gaps must be taken into account when deciding which field to support with a Chair and whether to limit the pool to internal candidates.

Advertisements/Search for Applicants

*The time from advertisement to application submission must be less than two years.

5. Use the CAUT Authorization to Advertise for Tier 1 / Tier 2 CRC to create your ad.
   • Send drafts of your advertisement to the Office of the VPRI CRC manager for review.
   • Use inclusive, unbiased, and ungendered language focused only on the qualifications and skills necessary to do the job.
   • Advertising as widely as possible and targeting FDG (beyond minimum requirements) to obtain a diverse group of applicants is strongly encouraged.
   • Emailing the advertisement to faculty members in the Department/Faculty to make them aware of the posting is also strongly encouraged.
   • The ad must provide a minimum of 30 days for applications to be submitted.
6. Once the Office of the VPRI has approved the advertisement, distribute your advertisement as determined in step five.
7. All FDG restricted CRC job ads will stipulate that applicants must complete a self-identification survey (hosted by UWaterloo Human Resources) as part of the application process. All applicants must self-identify with the ad restriction in order to be eligible for an interview. Once a job ad closes, the list of applicants is sent to Human Resources for confirmation of eligibility.

Evaluation/Nomination Decision

8. Evaluate the applicants using the evaluation criteria developed in step four. For nominees outside of Canada, consult the CRC Guidelines on Foreign Nominations. The committee must:
   • fairly consider the impact of leaves on a potential candidate’s record when assessing research outputs,
   • consider that leaves can contribute to a career slowdown as individuals transition to being on leave and back to work;
   • ensure that the assessment process does not undervalue scholarship or research that is non-traditional or unconventional, based on Indigenous ways of knowing, outside the mainstream of the discipline, or focused on issues of gender, race, or minority status,
   • ensure that the need for workplace accommodations does not negatively impact a candidate’s assessment,
   • carefully document all evaluation processes and decisions at each stage of the process, and retain this information for a minimum of 48 months, and
   • review the final hiring decision (and challenge it if necessary) to ensure that unconscious bias did not negatively impact the decision-making process and that it is aligned with Waterloo’s EDI Action Plan.
9. Once the potential CRC nominee has been selected in compliance with the procedures above, let the CRC Manager (crc@uwaterloo.ca) in the Office of the VPRI know who has been selected. The CRC Manager will reach out to the Selection Committee Chair and nominee and provide detailed instructions on how to complete the required Internal Nomination form (INF), as the next step in the CRC nomination process.
   Once the INF has been completed and signed, the nominee should email the original Internal Nomination Form package, including all attachments to crc@uwaterloo.ca. Ensure to include the completed and signed CRC Selection Committee Report.
10. Once CRC requirements have been met, the Office of the VPRI will forward the Internal Nomination Form package to a CRC Internal Review Committee for approval based on an assessment of:
    • alignment with Waterloo’s strategic priorities, including EDI, and
    • the strength of the nomination package.
11. Office of the VPRI staff will work with approved nominees to ensure applications are completed to meet CRC application deadlines.

Please note: Faculties may choose to target job advertisements to any of the Four Designated Groups (FDG). Vacant CRC positions may be advertised internally, or advertised concurrently internally and externally. The specific steps for advertising internally are as follows:

Selection Committee

1. When a CRC allocation has been approved, contact the Office of the VPRI CRC manager to obtain information about Waterloo’s internal arrangements (financial and non-financial) for CRCs and a copy of the CRC Selection Committee Report.
   • Use the Selection Committee Report to select and nominate a CRC.
   • Submit the completed Selection Committee Report to the Office of the VPRI CRC manager for review prior to collecting signatures. Include the completed and signed Selection Committee Report with the Internal Nomination form and additional documents also see step nine).
2. Establish a selection committee and follow all relevant University/Faculty/Departmental policies/guidelines (e.g. Policy 65, Policy 69) and CRC selection practices/policies to select new CRC nominees. The committee must:
   • have more than one member,
   • include one or more individuals from the FDG or have made concrete efforts to form a diverse committee, and
   • include an equity champion. While equity is everyone’s responsibility, the champion will ensure that equity and diversity are considered throughout the selection process.
3. Contact the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism, to ensure all individuals involved in the selection process have undertaken equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) training within the last 12 months. If not, training must be completed before committee work is initiated.
4. Once EDI training is complete, decide the strategic area that will be filled by the chair position and the evaluation criteria that will be used to identify a nominee.
   • Waterloo’s equity targets and gaps must be taken into account when deciding which field to support with a Chair and whether to limit the pool to internal candidates.

Advertisements/Search for Applicants

*The time from advertisement to application submission must be less than two years.

5. Use the CAUT Authorization to Advertise for Tier 1 / Tier 2 CRC to create your internal ad.
   • Submit a draft of the ad to the Office of the VPRI CRC manager (crc@uwaterloo.ca) for review.
   • Use inclusive, unbiased, and ungendered language focused only on the qualifications and skills necessary to do the job.
   • It is up to the Selection Committee to determine how broadly to distribute the internal ad, but it must be distributed at a minimum to: the entire Department/Institute/Centre/School or Faculty.
   • The internal ad must provide a minimum of 30 days for applications to be submitted.
6. Once the Office of the VPRI and the Provost Office have approved the internal ad, and the internal ad is posted on the UW CRC Public Accountability website, distribute your internal ad as determined in step five.
   • The internal ad must be posted to the Public Accountability website before the internal ad  is sent to faculty members and will remain posted until the closing date indicated in the internal ad.
7. All FDG restricted internal ads will stipulate that applicants must complete a self-identification survey (hosted by UWaterloo Human Resources) as part of the application process. All applicants must self-identify with the ad restriction in order to be eligible for an interview. Once a job ad closes, the list of applicants is sent to Human Resources for confirmation of eligibility.

Evaluation/Nomination Decision

8. Evaluate the applicants using the evaluation criteria developed in step four. For nominees from outside Canada, consult the CRC Guidelines on Foreign Nominations. The committee must:
   • fairly consider the impact of leaves on a potential candidate’s record when assessing research outputs,
   • consider that leaves can contribute to a career slowdown as individual’s transition to being on leave and back to work,
   • ensure that the assessment process does not undervalue scholarship or research that is non-traditional or unconventional, based on Indigenous ways of knowing, outside the mainstream of the discipline, or focused on issues of gender, race, or minority status,
   • ensure that the need for workplace accommodations does not negatively impact a candidate’s assessment,
   • carefully document all evaluation processes and decisions at each stage of the process, and retain this information for a minimum of 48 months, and
   • review the final hiring decision (and challenge it if necessary) to ensure that unconscious bias did not negatively impact the decision-making process and that it is aligned with Waterloo’s EDI Action Plan.
9. Once the potential CRC nominee has been selected in compliance with the procedures above, complete the required Internal Nomination form (INF), as the next step in the CRC nomination process. Ensure to include the completed and signed CRC Selection Committee Report.
   
   Once the INF has been completed and signed, the nominee should email the original Internal Nomination Form package, including all attachments to crc@uwaterloo.ca. 
10. Once CRC requirements have been met, the Office of the VPRI will forward the Internal Nomination Form package to a CRC Internal Review Committee, for approval based on an assessment of:
    • alignment with Waterloo’s strategic priorities, including EDI, and
    • the strength of the nomination package.
11. Office of the VPRI staff will work with approved nominees to ensure applications are completed to meet CRC application deadlines.

Renewal Process

In keeping with CRCP guidelines:

Tier 2 Chairs:

• can be renewed only once, for a maximum of two five-year terms; and
• are eligible for renewal in their fourth year.

Tier 1 Chairs:

• can be renewed only once, for a maximum of two seven-year terms; and
• are eligible for renewal in their sixth year.

The Office of Research will initiate the renewal process, and eligible Chairholders will have the option of two renewal application cycles; one year prior to the end date of the chairholder’s term, and six months prior to the end date of the chairholder’s term. Renewal nominations for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 Chairs must be submitted at least six months prior to the term end date. 

Third-term nominations:

• Tier 2 Chairs cannot be renewed for a third term.
• Third term renewals for Tier 1 Chairs are no longer permitted even under very exceptional circumstances.

2025-2026

2024-2025

2023-2024

2022-2023

2021-2022

2020-2021

2019-2020

2018-2019

2017-2018

2016-2017

Excellence comes in many forms, and the metrics discussed below are by no means exhaustive. Though these metrics have always been taken into account, they have now been made explicit in this transparent framework.

Committee members should give careful consideration to, and be sensitive to the impact of, individual circumstances when assessing a nominee’s research productivity. This can include, but is not limited to, the following examples: career interruptions or slow-downs (e.g. maternity, parental, or sick leaves, pregnancy, eldercare, etc.), publication delays (e.g. to protect intellectual property), research in an emerging field or interdisciplinary research, and intellectual leadership activities. Waterloo’s Equity Office will provide training to those involved in developing CRC renewal criteria and to members of Faculty Evaluation Committees reviewing renewal requests. For more information, please see the CRC Program Guidelines for Assessing Productivity of Nominees.

In order to be nominated for renewal, CRCs must have met all the criteria of the ‘renewal plan’ established at the start of their initial term, while accounting for any individual circumstances outlined above. They must also have demonstrated an ability to establish an outstanding, world-class research program that builds on the accomplishments of the initial term (Tier 1), or have made progress toward becoming an outstanding researcher of world-class calibre (Tier 2).

All CRCs will be academics of stellar reputation, demonstrating academic and research leadership appropriate to their discipline and Tier. Leadership can take many forms, including but not limited to, participating in university committees or other strategic endeavours that positively impact a broad audience. It can also include creating research centres/institutes; outreach to stakeholder groups; advocating for policy improvements; leading multi-PI grants; writing books or manuals; communicating research results internally and externally; and providing mentorship to junior faculty and/or graduate students. CRCs are also expected to demonstrate leadership that promotes equitable conditions for all to succeed by:

• fostering a supportive climate – valuing equity and diversity, and encouraging work/life balance, and
• addressing under-representation of designated groups by supporting and promoting equity considerations.

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