The University of Calgary recently signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) aimed at strengthening UCalgary's relationship with the University of California system.
From left: Victoria Jones, chief global affairs officer, UC Irvine; Joanna Regulska, vice-provost and associate chancellor, global affairs, UC Davis; Janaka Ruwanpura, vice-provost (international), University of Calgary; Rana Sarkar, consul general of Canada in San Francisco; and Cindy Fan, vice-provost, international studies and global engagement, UCLA.
The signing ceremony followed the Canada-U.S. International Partnerships Roundtable session hosted at the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco, which brought together 14 Canadian institutions from Canada and 13 from the United States to discuss enhancing strategic research partnerships and student mobility.
Rana Sarkar, consul general of Canada in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, provided opening remarks at the ceremony and reiterated the importance of collaborations between Canadian and U.S. institutions. The U.S. is one of UCalgary's Countries of Emphasis under its International Strategy. In the past five years, research collaborations have produced nearly 7,000 joint publications between the University of Calgary and our colleagues in the U.S.
The signed agreement formally recognizes the outstanding work that has occurred between UCalgary and the University of California system at a faculty level, stemming naturally from the strong common research interests and expertise. Numerous faculty members from UCalgary are publishing jointly with authors from all three of their University of California counterparts, primarily in medicine, but also in other areas such as solar wind energy, chemistry, philosophy, and political science.
"Building on many existing research and education collaborations and common interests, such MOUs create an institutional framework that drives greater collaboration between our universities," says Dr. Janaka Ruwanpura, PhD, vice-provost (international) at the University of Calgary.
This notion is strongly supported by Dr. William Ghali, MD, scientific director of the O'Brien Institute for Public Health, and Dr. Hude Quan, PhD, professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary, and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Classification, Terminology and Standards. For more than 12 years, they have been collaborating with Dr. Patrick Romano from UC Davis on health information science initiatives.
A focus for this group relates to their work with the World Health Organization on disease classifications, and quality and safety indicators that relate to overall health-care quality and safety. Their work with Dr. Romano is part of an international network known as the International Methodology Consortium for Coded Health Information, which has resulted in several joint publications and funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the United States.
Following the signing ceremony, University of Calgary International representatives visited UC Davis for the day to meet with Dr. Romano and other faculty and administrative staff to discuss enhancing existing collaborations through student and faculty exchanges, and have identified several additional opportunities.
"During our visit, we ended up meeting with former University of Calgary philosophy professor, Dr. Elaine Landry, who is now working at UC Davis. Dr. Landry is still very connected to the University of Calgary, and is interested in formally collaborating within the Department of Philosophy," says Andrea Morrow, director, international relations. "It's wonderful to see the synergy and opportunities to build upon existing connections outside of the country."
