As Queen’s Vice-Principal of Research, Chair of the Board of PARTEQ Innovations Inc. and a civil engineering professor, Kerry Rowe is a busy man. His own research has been recognized with several awards and he has been honoured for his outstanding teaching.
He took some time out of his schedule to talk to the Journal about research at Queen’s, what he does and why it’s important to have faculty interested in both research and teaching.
Journal: How does university-level research really work?
Kerry Rowe: We need to be careful that we don’t define research too narrowly. Research includes scholarly activities and work in the fine arts, which does not get funded in the same sort of way that science, engineering, health science gets funded. You have a researcher, who has typically gone through a PhD, so they already have exposure to research. … One of the driving forces for them to come [to Queen’s] is to advance knowledge. They’re interested in a problem, there’s a question they’d like to answer, either on their own or as part of a team.
Who might make up that team?
Rowe: That team could constitute undergraduate and graduate students [and] post-doctoral fellows. … They may be working as a single scholar, or they may be working with a large team of researchers from Queen’s and other universities. So the sort of research that goes on at university covers a very big spectrum from faculty that really don’t need more than a pencil and paper and access to a library, who require very little funding, to researchers who need millions of dollars.
Is that where your office comes in—helping researchers fund their work?
Rowe: Our office tries to facilitate research, and also make sure that research is in compliance with general standards. Facilitating … is helping researchers find research funds, helping them fill out applications, helping them get set up in their research [and] providing advice to researchers. We run training sessions on how to apply for research grants. We try and put together groups of people, because many of the topics that governments are prepared to fund are not topics that can be addressed by an individual researcher—you have to put a team together with complementary skills.
On the compliance side, our office looks at animal care. With respect to research involving human subjects, we have two research boards [that look] at what researchers are going to do, reviews it, makes sure it conforms to ethical standards … [and] protects the public in of what is done.
What do you do on a typical day in the office?
Rowe: A typical day is mostly spent in meetings, because there are a lot of issues that need to be dealt with, a lot of facilitation. I’ve got a lot of staff to direct. At night time, [I] do all [my] paperwork.
Is it common for every faculty member to be involved in research?
Rowe. Generally, yes, the vast majority.
Is that because it’s a rule, a convention, or just personal preference?
Rowe: One of the major motivators to be at a university [is] to do both teaching and research. Do you find a lot of faculty are forced to choose to focus on teaching or research?
Rowe: I think most faculty have a balanced portfolio as to teaching and scholarship. Some will perhaps tend more onto one. At some universities, they have researchers that don’t teach, [but] Queen’s expects everybody to.
How do faculty balance teaching and research? Is one more important to Queen’s than the other?
Rowe: We run training sessions for young academics on how to balance. I think they’re both very important to Queen’s, and, in fact, I’d argue you can’t do one without the other. Good research feeds into teaching, and teaching often … gives you ideas that lead to more research.
Are you teaching right now?
Rowe: I don’t do any full-time teaching. I do a little bit in a second-year course, a little bit in a fourth-year course, and a little bit in a graduate course. I have quite a few graduate students.
Are you doing research right now?
Rowe: Oh yes, I have a lot of research. I haven’t put my research on hold, I’m still doing it. I’m pretty busy.
Does a person’s research potential influence their position as a faculty member?
Rowe: Yes. In the hiring process … they will look very carefully at the research potential of the individual as well as their ability to be a teacher. In of promotion and tenure, certainly people’s performance is evaluated in of teaching and research.
Could someone lose their job for not getting their research in on time?
Rowe: Most of the research that is being done doesn’t have a deadline as such. What people are looking for is the level of productivity and the level of quality of the work that’s being done. You ask if people might not get their job or might not keep their job—yes, that’s possible.
Who is in charge of deciding whether or not a faculty member should be fired?
Rowe: The process goes through the [Vice-Principal] Academic to the principal. But there will be a committee in each department that makes a recommendation to other committees until it eventually reaches the principal. But that doesn’t come through my office door—we have no part of that process.
How do you divide funds among research departments?
Rowe: We don’t have a big pot of money that we give out. The individual professors go out and generate research funds—we will facilitate that. [We’re here] for networking, for helping them put together good applications, for encouraging them [and] providing them with suggestions as to where they might look for funding.
Can professors control how they spend the award money?
Rowe: It depends a little bit on the award, but mostly there’s a good degree of flexibility … as long as the money goes directly toward their research.
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