ISIS at Sauder School of Business

ISIS at the Sauder School of Business is focused on leveraging business tools to advance social innovation and sustainability, through research, incubation, and application. ISIS defines social innovation as a new approach which fosters initiatives that contribute to solving existing social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental challenges. This encompasses concepts such as social enterprise, social finance, and strategic corporate social responsibility. What it does not involve is simply throwing money at a problem. Rather, ISIS aims to build institutions designed to create value rather than dependency. ISIS currently works with a number of First Nations communities in British Columbia. Their goal is to build intellectual and human capacity by linking knowledge with action to further the field of sustainability and social innovation.

www.isis.sauder.ubc.ca

 Project Scope of Work

The scope of work for projects undertaken with ISIS – Sauder School of Business at UBC, is to be defined through a collaborative process with the partner Nation and involves the use of graduate student resources from top tier Canadian universities. Suitable projects include analyses of existing business units, industry sector opportunities or any realistically achievable research project that is suitable for a graduate student to perform, is beneficial to the First Nation and fits within the research themes of ISIS. The three broad research themes at ISIS are: Low Carbon Economy, First Nations Economic Development and Social Economy.

Project Funding

ISIS has been successful at leveraging the MITACS Accelerate program to partially fund First Nation economic development projects. The funding requires an industry partner, which can be an economic development corporation or an individual business unit. The level of funding varies dependent on whether 1-5 projects over the course of a year are undertaken (consisting of one graduate student per project for a four month period) or whether 6 or more projects are undertaken over the course of a year. A small increase in the MITACS match percentage is achieved when a client chooses to undertake 6 or more internships over the course of a year.

Benefits to the Partner Nation of ISIS Engagement

Four months of pre-selected, experienced MBA (or other graduate level) student work, which includes:

• Dedicated management and oversight of students throughout the life of the Project
• Connection with other organizations and partners
• Professional administration and support of students (outlined below)
• Associating your research findings with UBC, the Sauder School of Business and ISIS – all of whom have a strong reputation for their research capabilities and output.
• Additional funding in the form of a match of $7500 in funding upon the successful acceptance of a MITACS application.
• If warranted by the research scope, additional funding towards a travel budget is available.

 ISIS Management and Oversight

The following section details benefits that come from an involvement with ISIS in support of the development and execution of work to be performed.

• Direct supervision: A director or manager on staff at ISIS will lead a Project through development of a project charter with the client and oversee a student’s schedule and deliverables.
• Student oversight: ISIS will coordinate graduate fellows[1] and student interns[2] through:
• Interview and selection: Students can come from any top Canadian universities. It is expected that most will come from the MBA Program from the University of British Columbia (UBC). They will be engaged, interviewed and selected by ISIS and Partner leadership to undertake identified research for the Project.
• Activity management: Following the individual Project Charter which is agreed upon in advance of the project, ISIS will arrange activities that include travel and connection with Project stakeholders.
• Connection to UBC: As ISIS is part of the Sauder School of Business at UBC, this Project will benefit from strategic access to library resources and strong relationships with professors.
• Relationship with MITACS: ISIS has a long and productive history of engagement with MITACS and its ACCELERATE Program[3].  This Project will benefit from the strategic employment of graduate student talent from top ranked Canadian universities that leverage government funding to support innovative research. ISIS will lead the following MITACS activities for this Project:
• Proposal writing: Collection of information to structure goals, objectives, milestones and research methodology to submit for funding to MITACS.
• MITACS program financing:  All Project paper work, disbursement of student salaries and expense payments (from MITACS funds) will be managed by ISIS.
• Administrative Support: ISIS will allocate space for graduate students to work, including both personal andmeeting spaces (with Internet and telephone) to conduct research in support of this Project. Fellows and students will also have access to the ISIS staff for additional support.