VICTORIA -- Royal Roads University will be the home of a new specialized institute that will examine, and make suggestions on how to manage, global events like the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the university, the new Cascade Institute will "identify intervention points that have the potential to positively influence global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic."
The new institute will be led by Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon, a university professor and author of several books, including the bestsellers Carbon Shift, The Upside of Down and The Ingenuity Gap. The institute will be made up of 20-25 researchers and additional staff working on the school's campus.
“We’re facing complex challenges that affect everyone, and Dr. Homer-Dixon has worked in the field of converging issues for many years,” said Royal Roads University president Philip Steenkamp. “We are fortunate to have him leading this institute at Royal Roads."
Meanwhile, Homer-Dixon says that he is determined to examine and address global issues as quickly and as effectively as possible, alongside researchers at the university.
"I'm very excited to bring a team of researchers together to work with Royal Roads faculty and students and researchers here on campus to study the world's problems and try to address them more effectively and bring some real Canadian expertise to the crises that humanity faces," said Homer-Dixon.
The institute will share its findings with politicians, policy makers and others who can intervene in the systems around them.
The Cascade Institute is expected to operate for the next ten years.
"Because we're in urgent times and the Cascade Institute is supposed to move very fast and respond with rapidity to the challenges we face, having that sunset clause just reinforces that fundamental premise of the project," said Homer-Dixon
"Finding the opportunities to intervene and put us all on a more positive path is what the institute is all about," said Homer-Dixon
