Research Centres, Institutes, Labs & Facilities

The Alexandro Malaspina Research Centre, affiliated with the Liberal Studies Department, is dedicated to the life and works of the 18th-century Italian navigator, as well as to conducting, and developing English-language resources for the promotion of interdisciplinary research into navigation in the 18th century and first contact between indigenous and European people on the Pacific coasts of the Americas. The Centre supports international collaboration between scholars and enthusiasts with like interests, has hosted a number of symposia and public lectures, and has developed an extensive website. The first major publication stemming from the Centre's work, an annotated translation of Malaspina's philosophical work Meditation on Beauty in Nature, appeared in 2007.

The Applied Environmental Research Laboratories (AERL) is an internationally-recognized research facility that conducts pure and applied research in analytical mass spectrometry and environmental chemistry. The group develops new and improved strategies for the measurement of chemical determinants of environmental and human
health. As an active group, the AERL team collaborates widely with external collaborators from around the world to carry out in-situ chemical analysis in complex environmental samples, including air, surface and underwater applications.

The AERL facility includes a sample processing lab, a wet chemistry lab and a state-of-the-art instrument facility specializing in environmental chemical analysis by tradition and emerging methods. We are on the leading edge of an evolution in 'bringing high precision chemical measurements to the sample' rather than the other way around. The central innovation in this work is a membrane interface that allows us to continuously analyze a flowing sample by passing chemical analytes to a mass spectrometer.

The Brain Electrophysiology and Neuropsychology Lab, housed in VIU’s Psychology Department, consists of microcomputer-based apparatus for stimulus presentation and EEG, EMG and behavioural response recording and analysis. Facilities include software and hardware for experimental control, data storage, analysis and imaging of brain activity during sensation, perception, cognition and behavioural response preparation. A new addition to the lab this coming year is an infrared video-based eye-tracker for application in a wide variety of research in collaboration with others in the Psychology Department as well as Faculty and Students from other disciplines. 

The Institute for Costal Research (ICR) has an interdisciplinary research mandate focusing on costal communities of British Columbia, the Pacific North, and beyond. It synthesizes the bonds between local and academic communities and industry through coastal study, research and dialogue. The aim is to foster interdisciplinary research involving the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities as they relate to coastal study, research and activity. . The focus is on understanding and promoting the resilience of our coastal social-ecological systems.

The Literary Theory Research Group & Seminar for Advanced Studies in the Humanities was set up by Dr. Richard J. Lane and Dr. Daniel Burgoyne at VIU in 2007.  The group’s primary goals are: to provide leadership in humanities research at VIU; to provide a forum for upper level debate and dialogue within the humanities; to encourage VIU faculty to present work-in-progress and other early stage ideas and papers while also bringing in leading international speakers; to support a number of different research formats, such as the small group seminar, larger lectures, guest lectures, essay and book publications; to forge links with professional bodies and to gain a higher profile representation for VIU within the humanities at events such as the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The MRL provides expertise, assistance, and infrastructure to support research and projects involving digital media.

Our core activities include:

• training and supervising research assistants involved digital media projects;
• supporting targeted faculty research in new media;
• demonstrating new media research and projects;
• creating alternative video media, including recording significant cultural events on campus and in the community (filmUnit);
• seeking partnerships and funding for projects;
• researching best practices for emerging new media distribution and use.

The Media Research Lab attempts to integrate new media more fully into institutional practices, through demonstrations, workshops, exhibits, and supported pilot projects. For example, the Film Unit explores the protocols and standards for creating an institutional digital archive.

The MRL supports student collaboration with faculty on complex research projects.

The MeTA Digital Humanities Lab is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (Leader Opportunity Fund), the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, and VIU’s Faculty of Arts & Humanities. The main aim of the lab is to develop an online database application called the Media Text Assemblage (MeTA). This project aims to use media text clusters to study the graphic and historical dimensions of the publication and reception of Canadian literature. During the summer and fall of 2011, the digital humanities research lab was built in Building 340, and the technology was installed and tested for operational capability. For MeTA itself, the graphic components of the application were designed and relevant academic-quality online resources were identified.

Linking Research, Teaching and Practice"

The Recreation and Tourism Research Institute (RTRI) was developed in 1996 to promote and support leisure research at Vancouver Island University among faculty, students and professionals. The Research Institute seeks to link researchers and practitioners and to mobilize knowledge in the leisure field.

Each year, faculty and undergraduate students engage in projects with various community and industry partners.

The Center for Coastal Health (CCH) is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to identify and understand the interactions of human, animal and environmental health.

Vancouver Island University's Fraud and Ethics Research and Education Centre is a multi-disciplinary occupational fraud & ethics research centre whose stakeholders are individuals, managers, professional associations, and public and private organizations wishing to manage fraud risks effectively while promoting an ethical culture; and forensic investigators, accountants, lawyers, law enforcement and others pursuing increased knowledge of fraud prevention, detection, and resolution.

“The World Leisure Center of Excellence in Sustainable Leisure Management brings together established and emerging scholars from around the globe to share innovative ideas, engage in dialogue and collaborate in research and teaching”.

The core themes of the Center include:

1. Sustainability: Questioning the relationship between leisure and sustainability, determining the level of sustainability of the leisure industry and inviting and monitoring new models and approaches to enhance sustainability.

2. Innovation: Rethinking the systems and structures that have evolved across the globe, creating a culture of innovation where new ideas emerge and flourish, and measuring the impact of innovation on sustainability efforts.

The Deep Bay Marine Field Station clusters scientific, environmental, economic and public engagement programming into one facility thereby creating a centre of excellence and innovation to support sustainable shellfish aquaculture development and preservation of coastal ecosystems.

The Research Facility includes:

• Wet Laboratories

• Larval Laboratory

• Algal Culture Facility