Strategic Goals And Priorities 2020-2021

The Vision Statement was followed by the launch of McMaster’s Institutional Priorities and Strategic Framework for 2021 to 2024. This new strategic plan focuses the University’s collective efforts around five key institutional priorities: (1) inclusive excellence, (2) teaching and learning, (3) research and scholarship, (4) engaging local, national, Indigenous, and global communities, and (5) operational excellence. The plan is based upon, and consistent with, a number of pre-existing strategic documents, including the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy and Action Plan, the Community Engagement Strategy and the new Teaching and Learning Strategy, and will itself be used as the basis for other planning processes throughout the institution. 

Our focus remains to foster the creative and intellectual potential of our students, while at the same time preparing our graduates to build successful careers and meaningful lives. McMaster also has a strong track record of working with industry, successfully outpacing our peers over the last five years in industry-sponsored research. Such industrial collaborations act as magnets, attracting businesses to our region, allowing for the incubation of new companies and creating jobs for Canada’s next generation of leaders – our students.

• McMaster developed and launched a Student Census and Experience Survey to inform improvements to the student experience in the following areas: food security and financial health; personal security and physical safety; social connection and belonging; emotional and spiritual well-being; mental and physical health; career development; and academic success.
• The International Student Services team within the Student Success Centre provides specialized support in the areas of immigration, orientation, transition, academic and career programs to help students adjust to life in Canada. The first-year mentorship program pairs international students with domestic upper-year students who provide peer-to-peer support in all areas of student life experience at McMaster.
• In winter 2021 the School of Nursing launched a new Indigenous Health Course within the BScN Program. The school also has a new Equity Community of Practice.
• The Undergraduate Medical Program has continued work on its Black Equity Stream and the implementation of mandatory implicit/unconscious bias and anti-oppressive training for assessors of applicants. The program has also reviewed its long-standing Facilitated Indigenous Application Process.
• McMaster Engineering has partnered with five other Ontario universities to release a new Fellowship designed to expand the pathways for Indigenous and Black students pursuing doctoral degrees. The goal is to increase the number of Indigenous and Black engineering professors teaching and researching in universities across Ontario.
• In partnership with University Technology Services (UTS), the Equity and Inclusion Office created a Web Accessibility Roadmap to ensure that all McMaster web materials are adhering to the AODA Legislation. 
• McMaster Continuing Education serves a significant number of newcomers to Canada, including internationally trained professionals. The Department is developing a roster of academic, career, and mental health and wellness supports for all students, with particular awareness of the needs of newcomers.
• The DeGroote School of Business has partnered with ICON Talent Partners, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing opportunities for high-achieving BIPOC students. Students receive comprehensive training, mentoring, and support to help them gain access to career opportunities in management consulting, sales and trading, investment banking, and
  related fields.

• McMaster’s Virtual Learning Task Force – comprised of 31 faculty, students, and staff from across campus – was created in the Fall of 2020 to provide recommendations to the University on enhancing the virtual teaching and learning experience. Discussions regarding virtual learning have continued through the Teaching and Learning Advisory Group, which includes technology and pedagogical experts, instructors, and students. 
• The Student Success Centre, in partnership with UTS, developed an online learning support web page that acts as a central hub to support students’ academic performance in an online learning environment. 
• University Technology Services, in partnership with the MacPherson Institute, implemented several initiatives including: Alibaba VPN capabilities to support international students in China with improved access to campus systems; the purchase and implementation of the Zoom web conferencing software; the enhancement and integration of the Microsoft Teams system; and the integration of the Avenue to Learn Learning Management Systems with other systems on campus.
• The Undergraduate Medical Program made advances by investing in and supporting faculty members’ use of a variety of interactive digital technologies for large group sessions, and increasing the number of flipped classrooms, and small group virtual sessions at key points in the curriculum. These changes decreased didactic teaching, enhanced the opportunities for students to apply their knowledge, and allowed faculty members to provide immediate feedback.
• The Faculty of Health Sciences worked with hospital and clinical partners to adapt education programs and front-load conceptual learning so that students could better leverage clinical experience to consolidate medical knowledge during the pandemic. The Physiotherapy Master’s program adopted a focused ‘boot camp’ approach to teach clinical skills in adherence with public health guidelines, allowing physiotherapy graduates to join the workforce without delay.

• The Student Success Centre Career Treks program provides short-term opportunities to help students gain hands-on experience and mentorship from a local employer. During the pandemic, the program moved online and 86 student placements were completed in the virtual environment. The Student Success Centre also added several new partnerships focused on providing virtual opportunities to students, including hack-a-thons (Hackworks), conferences, and challenges (Mindsumo). 
• With support from the Government of Ontario’s Career Ready Fund, McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering is helping small and medium-sized businesses in the automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors hire co-op students from McMaster.
• McMaster Continuing Education is a partner with Level UP, an innovative work-integrated learning program powered by Riipen and sponsored by the Government of Canada. Students connect with organizations for short-term paid projects that help them gain relevant work experiences, build professional networks, acquire career clarity, and develop skills.
• In the Spring of 2020 the first class of scholars graduated from the McMaster Grand Challenges Scholars Program, which has the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as the focus. In this program, students develop skills in five key areas, including entrepreneurship and social responsibility, with the goal of preparing them to respond effectively to 21st century challenges. 
• The DeGroote School of Business, in partnership with Mitacs, launched the Business Strategy Internship (BSI) program in June 2020 and supported 52 internships. The BSI program provided students with the opportunity to put their skills to work and help organizations adapt and grow their business during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• In Fall 2021, the Faculty of Engineering launched its redesigned Engineering I
  curriculum, which includes a full-year, experiential engineering learning
  course centred around a series of virtual design projects and labs. Students focus
  on grand challenges, viewing complex problems with a multidisciplinary lens, with human-centred design thinking and entrepreneurship embedded in all programming.

• McMaster University Continuing Education has partnered with the National Institutes of Health Informatics (NIHI) to offer learning experiences that allow students to earn a micro-credential and receive a Certificate of Completion from NIHI and McMaster. This initiative was funded by eCampusOntario.
• With support from Ontario RapidSkills, McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute’s Industry Training Program is helping under- and unemployed workers with automotive and manufacturing training and experience adapt to new technologies and gain new skills in processes, materials, and industry 4.0.
• The Faculty of Engineering is creating a new minor and certificate program in software development, which will be available to all McMaster students. The minor will cover a range of topics, including programming, animation and visual effects, and artificial intelligence in the digital arts, enabling students to fuse their programs of study with software development skills. 
• A transnational, transdisciplinary doctoral program was launched in Global Health by the Faculty of Health Sciences to respond to the acute need for research and scholarship in this evolving area. It has developed a local and international complement of scholars to supervise a diverse and inclusive cohort of doctoral candidates.
• The School of Nursing and McMaster Continuing Education established an educational and business partnership to offer health professionals across Canada three academic credit courses in continence care. A Certificate of Professional Learning will be granted to those who successfully complete all three courses.
• In Fall 2021, the Faculty of Social Sciences will launch a new Concurrent Certificate in Social Innovation. The program will help students develop the skills they need to design and implement forward-looking solutions to social issues. The interdisciplinary certificate is open to any undergraduate McMaster student.
• Launched in 2020, the Systems & Technology Master’s program, offered through the W. Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology, is the only one of its kind in Canada that delivers specialized training in digital manufacturing, automotive, automation, and smart, connected systems.

• The Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences translated the undergraduate laboratory experience by mastering and navigating multiple online platforms to create dozens of original videos of lab techniques and develop an innovative virtual lab bench. 
• The Faculty of Science successfully adapted most labs to a virtual setting. First year Science students were sent laboratory kits, allowing them to participate in virtual labs from home while still gaining important hands-on learning experience.
• As part of the Virtual Learning Strategy announced by the Government of Ontario in December 2020, McMaster received over $2.5M to fund 28 projects. These projects support key priority areas for creating digital content, providing skills to faculty and students, and identifying educational technologies to support online course and program offerings.

• Archway, a made-at-McMaster program designed to deliver a guided, personalized support system, successfully engaged more than 4,500 first-year students, with 200 mentors conducting more than 8,500 one-on-one discussions. Created as a response to the unique circumstances facing students during the pandemic, Archway offers individual support by pairing each new student with an upper year student and a coach, a professional staff member who can answer questions, provide connections with on- and off-campus supports, and help create a sense of community.
• Mac’s Money Centre (MMC) in the Student Success Centre offers financial wellness education (budgeting, debt and credit management, spending behaviours), tax support services, and individual coaching appointments for students.
• The Student Success Centre provides on-demand virtual services for students, including drop-in appointments (video or text chat), and the Comm100 live chat. The live chat feature gives students access to immediate answers, refers students to partners when necessary, and promotes a sense of campus community. The Student Success Centre maintained its service delivery in the virtual environment with more than 350 students taking advantage of this service.

• McMaster University Continuing Education has partnered with Devant to offer the course Employability Skills and Cultural Fluency for the Canadian Workplace. This course provides essential support and guidance to international and newcomer students as they navigate the Canadian job market.
• The Michael G. DeGroote Health Innovation, Commercialization, and Entrepreneurship (Health ICE) program was initiated to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs and high-impact health innovations, and create a vibrant culture of entrepreneurship and interdisciplinary collaboration between clinicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, hospitals, and industry partners. It has engaged 1,050 individuals and supported 28 events and 28 health innovation proposals to date.
• The Global Health Office has developed a template for student work experience at local, regional, national, and international organizations that resulted in an inventory of more than 60 organizations prepared to offer three-month internships.
• In addition to offering a program specifically on Entrepreneurship, McMaster University Continuing Education hosts free webinars that provide insights into how to start a business. The sessions address the challenges of starting a business and how aspiring business owners can avoid these pitfalls. 

• Understanding students’ challenges with job searching and networking during a pandemic, McMaster hosted Connect to Careers Virtual Job Fair in partnership with Mohawk College, Redeemer University, Workforce Planning Hamilton, and Economic Development, City of Hamilton. A total of 78 organizations attended the virtual event: 90% of employers were hiring for full-time employment, 40% for co-op, 32% for summer, 47% for part-time, and 50% indicated they had remote opportunities available. 
• McMaster produces some of Canada’s most employable graduates, according to Times Higher Education. The University ranked fifth in Canada and 77th worldwide, in the Global University Employability Ranking 2020.

• EDI principles and practices have been codified in a new faculty recruitment and selection policy and a companion handbook launched to enhance inclusive excellence in hiring processes. Faculty members and staff hiring managers continue to be trained as Employment Equity Facilitators, supporting the advancement of institutional and Faculty/Departmental employment equity priorities and goals. The Strategic Excellence and Equity in Recruitment & Retention (STEER/R) Program will be piloted for a three-year period commencing in 2021.
• McMaster launched an employee resource group for Black, Indigenous, and Racialized staff to enhance opportunities for social and professional networking, as well as career and leadership development.
• The Faculty of Health Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee (EDIAC) has grown to 92 members, including faculty, staff, and learners, and the Terms of Reference are currently being revised to better incorporate the Indigenous equity perspective. The EDIAC has four working groups focused on strategic recruitment and retention, training and professional development, measurement of equity and inclusion, and inclusive communications. 
• Through the Equity and Inclusion Office, McMaster is represented on a newly launched Hamilton Anchor Institution Leadership (HAIL) Equity and Inclusion Task Force. The goal is to create proactive solutions, collective actions, and a stronger response to racism, equity, and inclusion across the City of Hamilton.
• McMaster joined the “50 – 30 Challenge” which is an initiative led by the Government of Canada in partnership with businesses and diversity organizations. Its focus is on gender parity (50%) and significant representation of under-represented groups (30%) on senior management and boards.
• In collaboration with the Child Welfare Political Action Committee Canada, McMaster committed to eliminating tuition fees for up to 20 current and former foster children who are working towards an undergraduate or graduate degree. Applications will be accepted regardless of the age of applicants so long as they meet eligibility requirements.
• The Faculty of Humanities’ MELD Community Access award program offers 10 full tuition awards to community members, mostly refugees and new immigrants, valued at $300,000. 
• McMaster Continuing Education’s 55 Plus program meets the learning needs and interests of older adult learners in a virtual format.

• Alongside the University’s institutional strategy, and recognizing the unique position of Indigenous peoples within our community and society, the Indigenous Education Council has been developing Indigenous Education and Research strategies to guide the University’s future work and focus in this crucial area.
• The Faculty of Social Sciences established an Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigenous Strategies (EDIIS) Advisory Group in 2020. The 13-member group will provide recommendations for EDIIS initiatives and monitor and report on the Faculty’s progress. 
• The Faculty of Health Sciences Indigenous Health Initiative (IHI) continues to build momentum to decolonize health science education for Indigenous learners. The Faculty is developing an Indigenous Health Learning Lodge in alignment with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s self-determining approach to system reform with respect to health sciences education.
  

• The Faculty of Social Sciences conducted a survey to better understand the community-engaged research (CER) taking place within the Faculty. The survey found that 25% of faculty members had engaged in CER in the previous year and conducted 68 projects with more than 130 community partners. The Faculty has also created a new interactive system to systematically track and share research projects. 
• Since it began its work in 2016, the Office of Community Engagement’s Research Shop has contributed nearly 14,300 student volunteer hours to address community partners’ questions on 44 projects. These included an environmental scan on affordable housing for newcomers to Canada and evaluations of academic and social programs for middle school students.
• The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal continues to be a key resource to support older adults, caregivers, clinicians, public health professionals, social system professionals, and policymakers from the City of Hamilton and around the world. The Portal shifted its focus toward older adults impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic by highlighting ways to stay active and engaged while practicing physical distancing. The content attracted more than 11,000 new site users and almost 20,000 sessions on COVID-19 topics.
• In 2020 the Faculty of Humanities launched the McMaster Humanities Career Apprenticeship Program in partnership with the Hamilton Economic Development office. Graduating students are paired with full-time employment opportunities in the Hamilton business community.
• CityLAB Hamilton, an innovation hub that brings together students, academics, and City leaders continues to identify complex challenges related to the City of Hamilton’s strategic priorities and match them with faculty and courses from Hamilton’s three post-secondary institutions. In less than 4 years, 1,075 students and 24 faculty members from McMaster have worked on 61 projects and contributed 18,853 student hours to CityLAB.
• The DeGroote School of Business (DSB) partnered with the Hamilton and Burlington Chambers of Commerce to launch a free advisory service, “Ask an Expert,” where small business owners in the community can seek guidance from faculty regarding the current market challenges posed by COVID-19. Faculty volunteers also shared their advice in webinars hosted by both chambers. In response to small businesses’ pandemic-related challenges, DSB also established a virtual incubator to support aspiring entrepreneurs.

• During the pandemic the McMaster Exchange Program facilitated virtual exchange opportunities for both inbound and outbound cohorts. Simultaneously, through McMaster’s institutional membership in Universitas 21, over 130 students participated in the U21 Global Citizenship course led by Common Purpose.
• McMaster Global Health provides a model of transdisciplinary higher education with cross-cultural learning opportunities. The program adapted its hybrid model to an entirely online collaboration with students from around the globe connected to lectures through six partner universities. The program culminated in a virtual academic symposium in which graduate students from McMaster had the opportunity to present their research to a global audience.
• McMaster’s global experience programming through the Student Success Centre provides opportunities for students to enhance their community engagement, leadership, and impact through work-related, real-life learning. Partnerships with employers and international organizations enable students and recent alumni to complete international work experience and gain intercultural competencies that complement their academic studies and support their career goals. 
• In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global health graduate program moved its capstone experience – a two-week international global health symposium – to a digital offering spanning 12 different time zones. The symposium brought together more than 300 students and faculty from McMaster and its partner universities in the Netherlands, India, Colombia, Sudan, Japan, and Thailand.
• Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact have supported timely healthcare decision-making through partnerships with internationally recognized organizations. This has included the World Health Organization (WHO), Cochrane, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
• The Global Health Office, in partnership with PAHO Collaborating Centres, provides support to Caribbean countries to strengthen their health human resources planning capacities. McMaster graduate students have the opportunity to participate in an international work-integrated learning project with a multi-lateral organization in Washington, D.C. 
• McMaster Global is an annual campus-wide showcase of the University’s global engagement activities, including International Education Week (IEW) and the annual McMaster Global Engagement Town Hall update. For the past three years McMaster Global and IEW has included more than 40 free workshops, seminars, lectures, academic and cultural events for students, faculty, staff, and alumni hosted and supported by 30 different campus wide stakeholders and community partners. This highlights the breadth of our collective commitment to global engagement, including addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and fostering global citizenship in support of McMaster’s vision and mission.
• The Student Success Centre global team offered two new virtual work opportunities to promote students’ experiential learning: 1. Think Pacific, Fiji Virtual Internships in the Fiji Islands; and 2. Virtual Internship Partners, whereby students applied to companies in China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, and the United Kingdom.
• McMaster is the host institution for Academics Without Borders, a virtual, volunteer-driven NGO that connects academics in the developed world with colleagues and universities in developing countries.

• In the Extended Primary Care at Home project, the Department of Family Medicine trialled an innovative model to treat patients with mild-moderate COVID-19 at home with close monitoring from primary care. This model reduced the demand on hospitals while facilitating early detection of those who needed hospital care.
• The Department of Family Medicine brought research and practice together by creating responsive and innovative interventions in at-risk long-term care homes, retirement homes, and residential care facilities during COVID-19 outbreaks. The Department is now leading efforts, in collaboration with the Hamilton Health Team, to translate lessons learned into continuous quality improvement in congregate settings.
• The First Nations Digital Democracy project seeks to understand the role of digital technologies, such as internet voting, in First Nations communities. The project brings together a unique collaboration of First Nations communities in Ontario, the Union of Ontario Indians, Elections Canada, industry partner Scytl, Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute, Ryerson’s Centre for Indigenous Governance, the Carleton University Survey Centre, York University’s Institute for Social Research and McMaster University. All partners in this project are keen to develop insights and strategies for harnessing digital technologies to enhance participation and the quality of governance for First Nations communities. 
• The McMaster Institute for Research on Aging developed two e-learning modules focused on osteoarthritis and brain health which were accessed by more than 75,000 users. 
• Caregiving Essentials, McMaster Continuing Education’s free online program supporting informal caregivers, won a 2020 Program Award from the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education. The program has served more than 600 caregivers since its launch in Fall 2018.

• Since launching in May 2020, 2,888 people from more than 50 countries have visited the free FIRST Course for rehabilitation specialists, and the program’s resources have been accessed 3,880 times. Of all learners who completed the course, 99 per cent agreed it was worthwhile and would recommend it to a colleague.
• Members of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact have helped international organizations develop and launch the e-COVID-19 Recommendation Map, accelerating the availability of new evidence to support and advance implementation and research efforts in Canada and around the world, including low- and middle-income countries; established COVID-END, an international network of experts from the health and social sciences that supports evidence-based policy-making in Canada and abroad; and developed a suite of rapid reviews and network meta-analyses to address the challenges posed by the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In the spring of 2020, the DeGroote School of Business launched the Knowledge Labs series, which transitioned existing live engagement events to a virtual platform. The series featured 10 webinars that generated 3,000 combined registered guests across the DeGroote and McMaster alumni global communities, as well as members of the business community.

• The Canada Foundation for Innovation made a $9.6M investment into the McMaster-based Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). This funding will help researchers identify early causes of conditions such as mobility impairment, disability, and cognitive decline and inform the development of interventions that increase a disability-free healthy life span.
• The Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC) – funded with a $1.1M Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Development Grant and based at McMaster – officially launched its pan-Canadian knowledge mobilization hub, bringing researchers together with policy and decision makers to help ensure that evidence-based data is put into practice.
• A $1M grant from the Weston Family Foundation Microbiome Initiative will allow researchers to develop and validate platform technology to deliver a compelling pre-clinical data package for multi-system inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s Disease.
• McMaster engineers are working with a precision-medicine diagnostics company to get infection-testing technology to market while generating opportunities for students. Together, they have developed and successfully tested a new material to help detect critical but elusive markers of illness, permitting more accurate measurement of infections, including COVID and cancer.
• A $1.5M award from the International Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) is advancing McMaster’s antimicrobial research. As part of an international team, McMaster researchers will study how groups of bacteria cooperate with one another which could help develop targeted, pathogen-specific treatments. The Program was also awarded more than $1M to work with researchers in France and the US to explore bone mineral depletion and treatments for illnesses related to bone density.
• Led by McMaster, a team of researchers from eight other universities in Ontario and Quebec have been awarded $1.65M in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s CREATE program. The Controlled Release Leaders (ContRoL) project focuses on developing a range of vehicles for controlled release. Although most-commonly associated with drug delivery, this also has applications in fields such as food science, anti-infection materials, and agriculture.

• McMaster formed a partnership with Bruce Power to further advance current and emerging medical isotope development and technologies related to the life extension of current reactors and new reactor development, including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). 
• McMaster is leading a project with the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council and Nuclear Innovation Institute to identify challenges facing Canada’s medical isotope supply chain and evaluate potential technology, logistical, regulatory, and policy solutions.
• McMaster is one of only a few global suppliers of I-125, the isotope used to treat prostate and other forms of cancer. The McMaster Nuclear Reactor typically produces and ships enough I-125 to provide material for about 70,000 treatments per year. For extended periods throughout the pandemic, MNR was the world’s only supplier of the life-saving isotope and was able to successfully meet the international demand.
• As a global leader in nuclear research, development, training, and commercialization, McMaster lent its expertise to the national dialogue on SMRs, contributing a “Chapter” to the federal government’s Action Plan with a proposal to undertake an SMR Employment Feasibility Study. Specifically, the study – in consultation with community, business, and government stakeholders, including Indigenous communities, and municipal councils – will build on McMaster’s expertise in SMR technology validation, nuclear safety, waste reduction, nuclear security and site monitoring, and integrated urban energy systems. 
• In collaboration with Candu Owners Group, Bruce Power, OPG, and a group of international researchers, McMaster researchers are developing advanced radiation detection and measurement instrumentation for low-dose mixed radiation to create alerts for subtle exposures that may not be observable but can have lasting negative impacts.
• The Canada Foundation for Innovation’s investment of more than $14M will complete MNR’s neutron beam lab by adding three neutron beamlines, enabling experiments that require high neutron brightness and expanding McMaster’s partnerships with two world-leading neutron beam facilities in the U.S.

• McMaster is a member of NGen, the national manufacturing supercluster, and is one of three universities leading Ontario’s Advanced Manufacturing Consortium, helping manufacturers improve productivity and reduce production costs.
• Researchers in the Centre for Emerging Device Technologies received more than $2.1M from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to study bio-compatible materials engineering, monitor from farm-to-fork, transformative photovoltaics, and materials and devices for integrated photonics. The goal is to maximize the economic and social impact of academic research in nanotechnology. 
• With a $3.4M award from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, materials science researchers will provide unprecedented multi-scale 3-D imaging of the structure of materials over time and under conditions that mimic manufacturing and service to gather essential knowledge to bring new materials to market.
• A $5.7M investment from the Canada Foundation for Innovation will allow researchers to build on the work of the world-leading Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy to study the dynamic characterization of the structure and composition of materials as they evolve under use.
• McMaster Automotive Resource Centre researchers, with support from MITACS, are supporting a leading aerospace company in developing next generation strategies, technologies, architectures, and products for its electrification program. McMaster researchers will develop concepts, architectures, algorithms, hardware platforms, firmware/software demonstrations, and design tools aimed at providing competitive advantage within the airline industry.

• McMaster has signed onto the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investments (UN-PRI), a set of practices that are aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. McMaster is committing to a 45 per cent carbon reduction of public equities within its investment pool by 2030 and aspires to achieve a carbon neutral investment pool by 2050 for public equities investments. McMaster is also committed to improving transparency, measurements, and reporting associated with carbon and other sustainability issues including land, water, air, equality, diversity, and governance.
• The Academic Sustainability Programs Office facilitates interdisciplinary, student-led, community-based, and experiential learning related to sustainability. The Sustainable Future Program consists of seven courses on topics such as advocacy, intersectionality, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In the upper-level courses, students work in interdisciplinary teams and engage with individuals from the McMaster or Hamilton communities to pursue projects resulting in real, sustainable change. Students can use these courses, along with 76 courses from across campus, towards an Interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability.
• The Student Activity and Fitness Expansion (SAFE) construction project has continued throughout the pandemic and is scheduled to open in 2022. The build-out and renovation will improve the environmental sustainability of the facility and better serve McMaster’s students.
• McMaster was the first Canadian university to adopt the Task Force Recommendations for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TFCD). The TFCD is focused on more effective climate-related disclosures and enables stakeholders to understand better the concentrations of carbon-related assets and climate-related risks. 

• Supporting micro-credential advancement, McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering is a leading partner in the recently founded Digital Credentials Consortium facilitated by MIT, which includes 12 international partner institutions. As part of this consortium, McMaster Engineering has contributed to international digital credential standards and development and collaborated with numerous industry and government partners around the globe. The Faculty is also building a solution to the problem of digital data breaches by creating cryptographically signed records, which will eventually produce commercial spinoffs focused on digital credential development and secure issuing services.
• Participedia – an international network of researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers who use an open-access crowdsourcing platform to share research and information about democratic initiatives around the world hosted by the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster – received a $2.5M Partnership grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to expand its reach and impact.
• Researchers in McMaster’s Centre for Software Certification were awarded $4M from the Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence to commercialize technologies and develop multidisciplinary HQP in the field of mobile health. Their work will enhance healthcare in Ontario by creating innovative solutions using mobile and leading technologies via co-design, model-driven engineering, the Internet of Things, wearable computing, augmented/virtual reality, and machine learning. 
• To accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and smart systems within Canadian industries, McMaster was awarded $900K from the Future Skills Centre. This will support the introduction of digital advances, including the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet of Things, and Industry 4.0, within industries such as manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, and supply chains.

• The 2020 Innovation Showcase focused on COVID-19 research and attracted more than 200 attendees, including industry professionals, researchers, and students. 
• MITACS supported over 20 McMaster projects and provided funding for projects that have an immediate impact on COVID-19. MILO worked with McMaster researchers to secure $1.47M in funding and hire more than 40 interns.
• In collaboration with the Campus Store and Research & High-Performance Computing Support, MILO created an online platform to promote and license copyrighted works that are validated and reliable tools for use in a range of different applications. This includes helping patients monitor their quality of life and supporting further research to improve treatments for a wide variety of diseases. The platform has resulted in cost savings to the University and is enabling McMaster to expand the service to other institutions.