CERIS research, working papers, virtual library repository

CERIS – The Ontario Metropolis Centre was one of five research centres that promoted policy-relevant research about immigration, settlement, and diversity in Canada. It existed from 1996 to 2013. Research findings that are timely and structured to be useful to policy makers may contribute to responsive and effective policy by ensuring that decisions are based on informed options.

CERIS worked to challenge the notion that academic research is more reliable and more authoritative than knowledge produced by nonprofits. To ensure the policy relevance of its research, CERIS included government and sector nonprofit partners in all stages of its research from the identification of research questions to dissemination of new knowledge. The partnerships with sector nonprofits who were rooted in newcomer communities increased the scope and quality of knowledge exchange.

The researchers identified three communities involved in knowledge exchange:

1. Policy Makers.
2. Academics, NGOs, policy institutes, think tanks and media.
3. Knowledge brokers (who bridge between the first two).

Research symposia held by CERIS - The Ontario Metropolis Centre were effective in promoting knowledge sharing between government, community organizations and universities. While the public sector creates policy, partnerships between community organizations and universities are important in knowledge creation that can support decision making.

CERIS also maintained a useful virtual library of reports, research snapshots and synthesis docs, government committee reports, working papers, and more. When CERIS closed, that repository was lost. I was able to download 408 documents before the repository was lost. Others have spoken about reposting the virtual library. But it hasn't happened.

While I've been wanting to post them all individually, I haven't been able to, and wanted to share the reports. They are in alphabetical order by main researcher last name and year (as they were saved in the repository). Some have made their way into my site individually, but most have not.

The repository can be found here.