Welcome to the Aquatic Research Cooperative (ARC) Institute

The ARC Institute (formerly the Cooperative Resource Management Institute) facilitates interactions between SFU researchers and personnel in environmental management agencies. Through collaborative approaches ARC Institute works to develop solutions to difficult multidisciplinary problems in resource management by providing an environment where personnel from different agencies, such as those responsible for forestry, fisheries, water, and wildlife management, can collaborate with SFU faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and research associates.

The Institute brings together expertise in resource management on the SFU Burnaby campus and enables new opportunities for multidisciplinary, collaborative research programs. Agencies benefit from engaging SFU researchers in projects that are directly applicable to the agencies’ needs and that cover topics that otherwise might not be investigated.

ARC Institute has two types of members: personnel from natural resource management agencies, and SFU faculty. The faculty are based in various schools and departments, such as the School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM) and the Department of Biological Sciences.

One of the current core strengths of ARC Institute is the study and management of fish and fisheries. The federal department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is a management agency that has located several of its Salmon Assessment and Freshwater Ecosystem Division staff full time on campus in ARC. This section of the DFO carries out research and provides advice relating to freshwater habitat and fisheries resources within Canada’s Pacific region. Staff provide expert advice to the public, resource managers, industrial stakeholders, and other scientific agencies through public hearings, court cases, management referrals, affidavits, scientific publications, and extension activities.