ISIRC 2025 Pre-Conference Activities
September 2, 2025
Pre-conference colloquium for PhD Students and Early Career Researchers
Date: September 2, 2025
Time: 11 am - 3 pm
Location: Social Innovation Hub (3553 31 St NW suite 290, Calgary, AB)
Meet, interact and network with PhD and Early Career Researchers to foster connections that can lead to collaborations and research partnerships. Participants will meet with like-minded peers gaining valuable feedback on your research project, research design, or career aspirations. Apart from discussions, participants are invited to present their ongoing research and dissertation projects. This platform allows for constructive feedback, suggestions, and insights that can enhance the quality and impact of your work.
Structure: Participants will be divided into small groups with a senior scholar.
Keynote Speaker to be announced.
Requirements for participation:
- PhD student, early career academic who have registered to attend the ISIRC Conference.
- Submission of a contribution (full paper, abstract, research proposal), preferably a different abstract from the one submitted to ISIRC 2025.
- Agree to write a review for one participant's contribution and moderate the discussion following their presentation.
- Submit your contribution between May 1, 2025 and June 14, 2025.
Questions and information, contact sadiq.gulma@mau.se.
Live Graphic Recording - Melissa Kendzierski
Changemaking: Ready to be Known
Date: September 2, 2025
Time: 1 - 4:30 pm
Location: MacKimmie Tower 7th Floor, room 701, UCalgary Main Campus
The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) embraces changemaking as a lens to address contemporary challenges and shape a more equitable future for our students, employees, and communities. Through creative problem-solving and a dedication to understanding the human impacts of issues, UFV strives towards a future of engaged, empowered citizens.
How do we do that? With four guiding principles: empowerment, decolonization and Indigenization, sustainability, and reciprocity. By approaching every challenge with these four values, we aim to improve the lives of the people around us.
Join experts from UFV including Dr. Martha Dow, Director, Community Health and Social Innovation (CHASI) Hub and Senior Advisor, Changemaking and Susan Mide Kiss, Vice-President, Community Engagement during this half-day workshop.
Participants will gain knowledge of changemaking and learn about promising practices to deepen community engagement and inspire social innovation. Students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners will engage through large and small group exercises, build capacity, and explore how to utilize practical tools within their own institutional and socio-cultural environments.
Light refreshments will be provided. For more information, contact Alysia Wood at the University of Fraser Valley (alysia.wood@ufv.ca).
Developing Compelling Impact Narratives
Date: September 2, 2025
Time: 1 - 4:30 pm
Location: MacKimmie Tower, 420 Campus Lane NW, Calgary, AB
Growing demand globally requires researchers, innovators and others to effectively demonstrate and communicate their contributions to broader economic and societal impact. In this workshop, participants are introduced to impact narratives as an effective tool for communicating impact.
Workshop Content
- Introduction to research, and innovation impact
- Rationale for, and value of, impact narratives
- Framing impact: Developing a theory of change. Using impact frameworks as tools to describe research impact and using impact pathways as a structure to demonstrate and communicate the impact of your initiative(s)
- Developing an impact narrative: Components, types of evidence along the pathways and your contribution, and message-driven communication
Learning Outcomes
Participants will gain an increased knowledge of and tools for writing and learn the "what, why and how" impact narratives:
- Explain the value of impact narratives in communicating research and innovation impact (what and why)
- Identify impact pathways and impact frameworks relevant for your initiative and apply them to describing and demonstrating impact
- Apply the Research Impact and Assessment Lab (RIAL) templates, guidelines and other tools to create a structured narrative (thinking through the narrative, the role of evidence, message-led writing, and avoiding 'elephant traps'
