Summary
In our 2004 report we recommended that the University of Alberta improve the integration of research into its strategic business plans. In 2008, we concluded the university had made progress, but had not implemented our recommendation.
The university has now implemented our recommendation.
Objective and Scope
Our objective was to determine if the university had implemented the recommendation from our 2004 report by integrating research into its strategic business plans.
For this follow-up audit, we:
- examined policies, roles and responsibilities of the Office of the Vice-President (Research) and the Office of the Provost
- reviewed annual report submissions for three faculties
- examined the university’s systems for performing strategic planning for research
- interviewed university management and staff
Conclusion
We found that the university has implemented our recommendation by:
- integrating its research priorities into the university’s strategic business planning processes
- developing consistent research performance measures and processes to monitor research results
- measuring research performance against planned goals and strategies
- periodically reviewing performance measures, including research measures, to ensure they remain relevant and aligned to the university’s goals