Simon Fraser University's Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) is celebrating five years of transforming how universities connect with the world.
Since its inception in 2020, CERi has supported hundreds of students, scholars, and community organizations through flexible research space, funding, graduate training, and media production all designed to mobilize academic knowledge into action.
Based at 312 Main in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, CERi has become a hub where scholars, artists, and community organizers work side-by-side to confront critical issues, including climate inequity, housing precarity, and reconciliation.
"CERi's story is proof that universities can be powerful allies in the movements for change and resilience already happening in our communities," says Tara Mahoney, research and engagement manager at SFU CERi.
The group has published a 5-Year Report documenting its accomplishments, which include awarding more than $320,000 to support community-based projects, and $651,750 to support the research of more than 164 SFU faculty and graduate students since 2020.
One example is the South Vancouver Neighbourhood Equity Project, led by professor Meg Holden in partnership with South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. The research revealed inequities in access to services and resources and resulted in the South Vancouver & Marpole Neighbourhood Equity Report. Their findings equipped residents with the data (i.e. metrics on the annual distribution of city resources across Vancouver) and stories needed to push city council in addressing systemic underfunding in South Vancouver.
The Graduate Fellowship Program alone has supported 79 students, including projects like Emily R. Blyth's Community Voices: A Public Primer on News Reporting on Police Violence and her co-created Gallery Gachet exhibit on empathy and safety in media.
Among CERi's many achievements are:
312 Main Research Shop, which offers low or no-cost research services to local non-profits, providing access to academic resources and training to support community-driven projects.
Quiet Alarm: A Review of CBC's Climate Reporting, a research project conducted in collaboration with the Climate Emergency Unit aimed at improving the climate reporting of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.
Indigenous Knowledge Research Exchange (in partnership with SFU's Faculty of Environment), which matches community-identified knowledge needs and strengths with institutional research support, ensuring research directly benefits and empowers Indigenous communities.
Horizons: Crises and Social Transformation, an international conference that drew over 200 researchers and community leaders together to explore new approaches to how community-engaged research and knowledge mobilization supports sustainable, inclusive and just futures.
CERi has also contributed to major national and international collaborations and a growing body of publications, including the openly available handbooks and toolkits and the new edited volume, Community-Engaged Research in a Time of Crisis and Social Transformation (2025) from University of Toronto Press.
CERi's approach to research is grounded in partnership and practice bringing academic and community knowledge together to understand and reimagine the conditions shaping our shared lives.
"Community-engaged research is not a single method it's a paradigm of ethical collaboration," says scientific director Stuart Poyntz. "We've learned deeply from our colleagues and community partners, whose leadership continues to shape our direction and deepen our responsibilities."
CERi is nurturing a new generation of community-engaged scholars and artists through its Researcher and Artist-in-Residence and Graduate Fellowship programs. Since 2020, these programs have supported nearly 100 practitioners with mentorship, funding, research space, and a collaborative environment rooted in reciprocity and real-world impact. Residents and fellows work alongside communities to co-create projects that blend research, art, and lived experience
As CERi enters its next five years, it will continue to expand opportunities to work alongside university colleagues, Indigenous Nations, communities, and organizations to advance reconciliation and equity in research.
