HIBAR Research Buddies
HIBAR Research Buddies is an innovative student-led initiative at the University of British Columbia (UBC) to build a community of graduate students who care deeply about engaging directly, through their research, with experts working outside of academia. Community activities focus on impactful Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive (HIBAR) research projects, emphasizing the value of co-leadership and co-production by academics and external experts – a topic that is intrinsic to all HIBAR projects and typically not addressed in graduate student curriculum.
A brief description of the HIBAR Research Buddies community
HIBAR Research Buddies is a student-led initiative to build a community of graduate students who care deeply about engaging directly, through their research, with experts working outside of academia. Community activities showcase societally-engaged projects that offer meaningful research opportunities for students. Scholarly projects of this type aim to discover new knowledge and address societal problems, and they do so in deep partnership with problem-solvers outside of academia.
The effort was launched at UBC as a 1-year pilot project to assess interest among graduate students to belong to a cross-campus, student-led community of this type, and to demonstrate that it is feasible to establish the community through a series of focused, student-led activities. During this 1-year pilot, the student leadership team:
- Conducted a research interests survey of UBC graduate students to learn more about their research interests. The 200+ responses have informed community activities.
- Conducted one-on-one interviews with 17 students who have participated in HIBAR projects, to develop a better understanding of how the community can support students.
- Attracted 370 UBC students from more than 100 departments to subscribe to the mailing list.
- Hosted an introductory webinar with seven graduate student presenters who shared insights gained from their HIBAR project experiences.
- Launched a monthly newsletter to share with the growing HIBAR Research Buddies community.
- Invited interested community members to meet for a “Buddy Coffee”, to get to know one another and discuss the growing community.
- Hosted a fun and engaging launch event, held simultaneously on both UBC campuses and attended by graduate students from more than 40 research disciplines.
- Carefully documented all activities and assessed their effectiveness.
This strategic action can encourage cross-sectoral co-leadership & shared decision-making:
Because HIBAR projects are not common, students who are currently participating in a HIBAR project may not know of other examples of such work on their campus, and students who are not currently participating in a HIBAR project may not even know they exist. For these reasons, the concrete and intentional activities are necessary to build awareness of HIBAR projects and enable those who are particularly interested to connect with one another, so that they can share and learn from their various experiences. Community activities emphasize the value of co-leadership and co-production by academics and external experts – a topic that is intrinsic to all HIBAR projects and typically not addressed in graduate student curriculum.
This strategic action directly contributes to various common institutional priorities, including:
Student
Success
HIBAR projects enable university-based researchers and non-academic researchers and practitioners to work together on projects that strengthening commitment to research excellence and also greatly accelerate progress toward solving society’s critical problems, since co-produced research outcomes are more likely to be translated to benefit society in the long term.
HIBAR projects involve deep partnerships with individuals in external organizations, often in locally-based industries, governments, non-profits, and communities. This inclusion helps build long-lasting relationships with people and organizations holding diverse knowledge and perspectives, and increases future community-engaged activities and solutions.
Talent
Development
HIBAR projects offer experiential opportunities that lead to many different career paths. This creates a positive feedback loop: as more HIBAR-experienced researchers enter the workforce, they can help co-create and co-lead more university HIBAR collaborations that in turn create new HIBAR research opportunities for another generation of faculty and students.
Learn more about the HIBAR Research Buddies
