Strategic Plan

An overview of Discovery Forward, Providence Research's Strategic Plan

One man looks into a microscope while another man stands behind him

Overview

Inspired by the need for health and wellness of patients and communities, Providence Research integrates teaching, knowledge creation and translation to discover and deliver disease prevention and dramatically improve care.

Our Discovery: Forward Strategic Plan

It’s been a decade and a half since the founding of the Providence Health Care Research Institute. Research and innovation are now crucial pillars of growth at Providence Health Care.

We entered 2021 with a unique confluence of new leadership, a significant new infrastructure and building project, and a global pandemic; the latter underscoring more than ever, the need for flexibility and collaboration among researchers. We also recently underwent an external review that recommended we prioritize a new strategic plan to frame our path forward. Additionally, the newly released report “In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in BC Health Care” challenges us to reflect on personal and systemic biases in the research aspects of health care.

About the Plan

In late 2020 and early 2021, we consulted our community, asking for input from a broad range of stakeholders. We analyzed these inputs and identified four common work themes that arose consistently across surveys, consultations, meetings and discussions. These overarching pillars reflect the passions and talents of our research community and acknowledge emerging global trends that are sculpting the health research environment. In addition to these themes called Strategic Directions, we’ve also pledged ourselves to a series of Foundational Principles – a set of values also expressed by our people.

During our consultations we were mindful of the role research can play to advance Providence Health Care’s Mission: Forward Strategic Plan, particularly its third Strategic Direction – “Discover, Learn and Innovate for Impact.” We will work cooperatively with Providence to ensure that our data strategies, our people strategies, and our commercialization strategies are aligned and integrated.

Providence Research Strategic Plan: Discovery Forward (2021-2026)

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Strategic Directions

At Providence Research we spark better ideas by bringing diverse people together. In our view, a diversity of opinions, people, training, and backgrounds leads to better teams and more impactful research. We are also humble learners of Indigenous health research practices and priorities and seek guidance from local Indigenous peoples and territory owners about their health research priorities. We fiercely care about our research and the people it touches and are relentless in our advocacy for them. Our Strategic Directions will help us bring these priorities to life.

  • Amplify
  • Build
  • Integrate
  • Activate

Foundational Principles

Many research organizations are all “business” – focused on outcomes. It’s how researchers are trained and incentivized. But at Providence Research, we’re different. Taking time to define our Foundational Principles is a reflection of our belief that how we go about our work is just as important as what kind of work we prioritize. These Foundational Principles create a lens through which all of our research work will be filtered.

  • Reconciliation
  • Advocacy
  • Sustainability
  • Ethics