New Sector Specific R3 Event Will Have a Greater Impact on our Research Community

Hilary Lenihan

Research Development Officer

THE HISTORY OF OUR R3 EVENT

Historically, R3 has been a biennial event that brings academic researchers, graduate students, government and supporting agencies and local industries together to recognize research results in the province. Researchers with accomplished projects or who have acted as excellent mentors to students in the field are nominated as R3 recipients. On top of an award ceremony and dinner, keynote speakers, discussion panels and a funding competition are all components of R3’s gala-styled event. Furthermore, with some of New Brunswick’s most talented and established researchers in attendance, it was aimed at being a networking opportunity for graduate students and industry. 

R3’S 2021 EVOLUTION

Applied research is one of our core focuses, it’s not only important to celebrate the impactful accomplishments in our province, but also provide an opportunity for our research community to collaborate. We’re launching an evolution of our R3 event with hopes that it will have a greater impact on the research community we work with. This year, we will announce the first of R3’s new format – which will be sector-specific, one-day conference style events. Rather than hosting large formal galas, we want to do more in-tune celebrations with what sectors are emerging in the industry. Moreover, instead of holding biennial events, the newly evolved R3 will consist of several mini events scattered throughout the year. These conference style events will include keynote speakers, discussion panels and research competitions, just on a more intimate scale than before. 

With our new mini R3 competitions, the idea is to provide people with more value. This new format allows attendees more opportunities to talk about their research, connect with industry experts, and hear about industry-specific trends. Smaller capacity events allow us to be more engaged with attendees and provide more opportunities for intimate relationships to be built. We have seen success in holding mini events with our Breakthru start-up series and believe this format will provide more opportunities for the people in attendance. 

THE VALUE IN SECTOR SPECIFICITY 

The overarching goal of hosting sector-specific events is to provide a more productive environment for our industry and researchers to gather, build connections, mobilize results, and disseminate findings with their key audiences. By being sector-specific, we can hone in on emerging sectors, have more impactful discussions, and strategize new potential funding opportunities. We feel that this change to R3 will have a bigger impact on our research community and further promote innovation by building capacity within emerging sectors. 

R3’s evolution is a welcomed and good change; it provides researchers with an ideal opportunity to share their research outside of the lab setting. As we were forced to cancel R3 in 2020 due to Covid-19, we hope that launching this evolution of our R3 events will get our researchers and industry excited for what’s to come!