Stakeholders' Engagement - Next Steps

Friday, March 8, 2024

Thank you to all who participated in the consultation sessions organized to date and supported the development of the “Future of Science” strategic plan. We sincerely appreciate the time and thought that 356 participants put into their survey responses, and that more than 200 people shared during the current state workshops.

We specifically acknowledge receipt of written feedback submitted through other communication channels that were created for this project. Rest assured: all voices were heard!

While the current state sessions were finalized last week, consultations with fourteen (14) key business partners outside the Faculty of Science are on track, and the target date for completion is March 18th, 2024.

The consultations conducted to date focused on “looking back”. Participants provided a wealth of valuable insights, furnishing us with a comprehensive retrospective about learning and working in the Faculty of Science. As we are “looking forward” and the insights collected are bundled into thematic clusters, we will be changing the approach for the remaining stakeholders’ engagements. The upcoming Strategic Priorities survey and the Future State workshops will be developed based on preliminary priority areas and aspirations and mission / vision / values.

Stakeholders will be presented with the new material after SPEC members get the opportunity to review it. As a next step, the initial dates of March 25th and 26th, 2024 for the Future State workshops will be rescheduled in order to allow implementation of SPEC’s recommendations following their March 26th retreat. Below is a summary of the changes in the workplan:

Revised workplan

Note: changing the approach for the remaining engagements does not affect the initial target date of the Open House for mid-June 2024, nor the September 2024 launch of the “Future of Science” strategic plan.

Looking forward to continuing working together to redefine the future of learning and working here at Waterloo Science.