Research Strategic Plan
The Rotman Research Institute’s strategic plan outlines how our mission, vision and values guide our innovative research on aging, brain health and dementia care.
Mission
The mission of the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest is to advance knowledge in the cognitive neuroscience of healthy aging and age-related brain disorders. With this focus, we ensure Baycrest’s impact spans from increasing scientific understanding to informing and advancing healthcare practice and health promotion in clinical and community settings.
Vision
We will build on our seminal theoretical foundation in cognitive neuroscience, and our leadership position in the innovative use of informatics and technology to understand human cognitive and emotional function and the determinants of brain health across the lifespan.
Values
Discovery
Theoretically driven discovery is key to developing novel technologies and therapeutic techniques for the effective diagnosis, treatment and prevention of brain disorders.
Quality
We remain committed to the standards of excellence for our scientists, students, staff and facilities that have made the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest a leader in the field of cognitive neuroscience.
Partnerships and collaboration
Significant advancement in understanding human cognitive function will only occur through combined effort and multidisciplinary collaboration within the institute and with others around the world.
Education and dissemination
Knowledge is only useful if it is shared. We will continue to lead in knowledge translation by disseminating and sharing new discoveries in scientific and public media and through open science.
Goals
Strategic imperatives and initiatives
A) Maintain our leadership position and generate new knowledge about the interactive contributions of the brain, the body and the environment to healthy brain aging.
- Recruit and retain the highest calibre people possible.
- Increase our success at obtaining external awards.
- Increase collaboration among existing researchers.
B) Maintainand leverage world class technological, informatics and computational infrastructure.
- Maintain and support the use of all neuroimaging modalities and a convergent technology methodological approach (MRI, MEG, EEG, PET).
- Expand the use of neuroimaging modalities (i.e. NIRS, portable EEG, TMS).
- Maximize our ability to use different forms of imaging data.
- Maximize the utility and usability of existing neuroinformatics datasets.
- Support enhanced scientific productivity through a high quality, reliable computational infrastructure.
C) Optimize the power of population-level studies to further our understanding of resilience, reserve and the multifactorial determinants of brain health.
- Engage with existing population-level research projects (e.g. OHS, ADNI, CLSA, TDRA, BrainCODE, ICES, CIHI).
Strategic imperatives and initiatives
A) Increase the amount of research involving clinical and community partners.
- Establish specific mechanisms to integrate research into existing clinical programs, encourage interdisciplinary collaborative projects and foster partnerships between clinicians and scientists.
- Leverage community and academic partnerships to facilitate research in real-life settings (community services, outreach programs, virtual reality centres such as TRI, etc.).
B) Leverage our technological expertise to assess and assist brain function in real-life settings.
- Participate in the development and/or validation of mobile cognitive assessment and neuroimaging technologies.
C) Increase our capacity for knowledge translation.
- Increase capacity to conduct clinical evaluations and trials of novel interventions (proof-of-principle experiments, randomized controlled trials, etc.), incorporating neuroimaging outcomes with behavioural outcomes when possible.
- Inform and educate researchers about the knowledge translation and commercialization process.
Strategic imperatives and initiatives
A) Attract more trainees of exceptional caliber to Baycrest.
- Increase local student exchange partnerships (e.g., TRI, St. Mike’s.).
- Increase our number of international research trainees.
B) Provide superlative research training at Baycrest.
- Continue to provide a comprehensive training program for research trainees through the Baycrest Research Training Centre (RTC).
- Expand the mandate of the RTC to include educational opportunities in research methods for clinical students and staff.
C) Disseminate our expertise.
- Provide specific expertise to the general public and to health-care and scientific communities.
D) Measure our success and tell the world about it.
- Implement an information management system to manage, share and track information about research productivity – funding opportunities, grant submissions, awards, REB submissions (active studies), publications and impacts.
- Develop mechanisms to share information about ongoing research within RRI and across Baycrest.
- Share research success through digital and print publications.