What We Do

SFU Climate Innovation overcomes disciplinary silos and knowledge fragmentation within and between adaptation, mitigation, and sustainability research and in community planning. We do this in three main ways.

handshake CatalyzING Interdisciplinary Collaboration

We support researchers to overcome disciplinary silos within and between adaptation, mitigation, and sustainability research areas. We remove barriers to collaboration by convening researchers, distributing seed funds, and enabling and incentivizing collaborative research clusters. 

partner_exchange Co-CreatING with Community Partners

We link researchers with community partners to advance co-creation research approaches. We include partners in research design, building shared learning and accountability throughout the research process, and evaluating community-centred outcomes and innovations.  

public MOBILIZING KNOWLEDGE AND SCALING CLIMATE INNOVATION

We bridge the gap between communities, decision-makers, and researchers. We mobilize knowledge, best practice, and innovation for others to learn from, with the goal of accelerating climate action and innovation that can be tailored for other communities.  

Who We Are

SFU Climate Innovation is a collaboration among units from across SFU dedicated to providing services in support of effective and impactful community-centred climate action and innovation.

Co-creators include:

• SFU Sustainability
• ACT - Action on Climate Team
• SFU Partnerships Hub
• Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
• Community-Engaged Research Initiative
• Research Intelligence Office
• SFU Knowledge Mobilization Hub
• Institutional Strategic Awards
• SFU International

By aligning existing capacities and supports, SFU Climate Innovation is reaching across the University to overcome silos. The community-centred climate innovation research priority provides a focus and direction to align efforts and deliver the services needed to ensure the success of this priority.

Together these units will convene researchers, advance co-creation methods between researchers community partners, use diverse knowledge mobilization channels, and support with the iterative evaluation of impact of the platform and its outcomes in the shift toward low carbon, resilient and sustainable communities.

Our Vision

SFU Climate Innovation is orienting SFU's capacities as a research University and its world-leading researchers toward accelerating high-impact community-centred climate action and innovation as a crucial response to the global climate change challenge. 

Our Goal

SFU Climate Innovation aims to drive research-for-impact. We work with researchers and community partners to catalyze, co-create, and mobilize solutions that advance low carbon, resilient, and sustainable communities locally and globally. We do this by using approaches that bridge with Indigenous knowledges and rights, that advance justice and equity, and that aim to scale climate actions and innovations that:

• support, buffer, and protect communities against real and projected climate impacts,   

• reduce emissions and decarbonize communities to achieve net zero emissions goals, and  

• multi-solve across other community priorities, providing additional sustainability benefits such as increased biodiversity, avoided costs, clean economic development, etc. 

We recognize that each of these approaches, taken together, are crucial elements of systemic and impactful solutions-building at community and regional scales.

Our Executive Director