The purpose of the Building Inclusive Research Capacity (BIRC) program is to build researcher capacity to support inclusive research environments and research design. The program consists of our five core webinars, which focus on inclusive research teams/environment and inclusive research design, in addition to workshops, and other resources including the Inclusive Research Resource Hub.
One of the most useful resources we have developed is the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Research: Grant Application Workbook that supports our “A Better First Draft” programming, which guides researchers through the questions they need to answer to develop their equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) plans, both for their teams and for research design in projects.
See below for information on upcoming deliveries of webinars and workshops.
Please see the Inclusive Research Events page for more upcoming events!
Core BIRC webinars:
Inclusive Research Resources (An Introductory Webinar)
The Inclusive Research Team is dedicated to intentionally supporting faculty to build equitable and inclusive research practices for rigorous research. This presentation is focused on providing you with an introduction to the resources and supports provided by the Inclusive Research Team within the Office of the Vice-President, Research and International, including how to navigate the Inclusive Research Resource Hub and how we support embedding EDI and supporting respectful Indigenous research principles and practices in grant applications.
Next offering: Thursday, January 16th, 2025; 11:00am-12:00pm
The Decolonial “R’s” of Research: Principled Approaches to Engaging Indigenous Communities
This webinar will cover highlights of deceptively simple concepts theorized by Indigenous scholars for community-engaged research projects—known as the “Decolonial “R’s” of Research”—and together, we will consider their expansive meanings and implications in a typical university-based research project lifecycle.
Next offering: Monday, April 28th, 2025; 2:00pm-3:00pm
Inclusive Research Tools: Identifying and Addressing Barriers
A question that often comes to the Inclusive Research team from researchers is “what are the top three things I can do to embed EDI in my work?” This session will help researchers identify ways to understand potential barriers that may exist in their research program, project, and/or teams and will provide ideas for concrete actions to meaningfully address them.
Next offering: Thursday, February 6th, 2025; 2:00pm-3:00pm
The Foundation: Building Inclusive Teams
Research shows that building inclusive research teams promotes research excellence. This presentation will take researchers through the necessary steps to identify EDI barriers on their teams, make a plan to address the barriers, and to review the outcomes of the actions they have taken and plan for the future.
Next offering: Friday, March 7th, 2025; 10:00am-11:00am
What is GBA+ Anyway?: An Introduction
Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) is an important tool for embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in every stage of research from design to sharing results and other outputs. But what is it, and how is it done?
This presentation will go over the basics of GBA+ including examples that highlight its usefulness, steps researchers can take, and questions they can ask themselves to start the GBA+ analysis of their research.
Next offering: Monday, March 24th, 2025; 2:00pm-3:00pm
Written resources
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Research: Grant Application Workbook
- What is GBA+ How-To Guide
- Identifying and Addressing Barriers Worksheet
- Inclusive Teams-Barrier, Action, Outcome Worksheet
- GBA+ Workbook
More written resources are coming soon!
Questions about BIRC? Contact research.equity@uwaterloo.ca.