RRC Polytech will operate on holiday hours from noon on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, through Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025.
During the break, the Notre Dame and Exchange District campuses will be closed and there will be no access. Regular hours of operation will resume at 6am on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.
We wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday season!
RRC Polytech welcomed Manitobans to the Notre Dame Campus today, as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of its Research Partnerships & Innovation (RPI) enterprise.
A gateway to applied research since its establishment in 2004, RPI connects industry and community partners with RRC Polytech’s comprehensive array of facilities, technology and expertise in collaborative projects that bring innovative ideas to life.
As part of the event, guests toured RRC Polytech’s research labs and areas, saw demonstrations of its leading-edge technology and engaged with faculty, professional research staff and students to learn how applied research projects connect all areas of the College and are driving our province into the future.
“As Manitoba’s polytechnic, RRC Polytech is committed to creating change through innovation and using the knowledge and tools that we offer to benefit our communities and the industries that our graduates will soon be leading,” says Fred Meier, RRC Polytech’s President and CEO.
“Applied research projects drive progress while providing students with invaluable experience through work-integrated learning. We’re eager to build on the incredible success stories we’ve shared with our partners over the last 20 years and to explore new opportunities to find solutions for real-world challenges.”
With 135 researchers and more than 600 students directly involved annually, along with applied research training enabled by research infrastructure in more than 60 courses, RRC Polytech is consistently named a top research college in Canada.
The College’s three NSERC-funded Technology Access Centres (TACs) and other various research facilities and resources are focal points for advancing knowledge, fostering collaboration and accelerating commercialization — with thousands of square feet of space to develop, test and create solutions to support small, medium and large enterprises and communities. Read More →
Health-care education at RRC Polytech enters a new chapter today with the opening of its new Interdisciplinary Health and Community Services Simulation Centre. This facility, the first of its kind in Manitoba, will begin training the province’s future health leaders in January.
The Simulation Centre is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary facility that will revolutionize health-care training in Manitoba. It’s the first centre in Manitoba to focus on nursing, allied health professions and community services, with 16,630 square feet of state-of-the-art learning space at RRC Polytech’s Notre Dame Campus.
“The Simulation Centre will maximize education opportunities and provide immersive and collaborative training for our health and community care programs,” says Fred Meier, the College’s President and CEO. “As one of the largest trainers of health-care professionals in the province, this is an exciting new frontier in how we can better train and prepare students to be confident in their careers and make an impact in our communities throughout the province.
“Simulation is critical, as it ensures students in all programs have access to immediate experiential training opportunities vital to graduation, gaining experience that helps better prepare them for the clinical environment and being job ready on day one.”
Using state-of-the art, high-fidelity simulation equipment and live actors to create small- and large-scale activities and mock scenarios, the Simulation Centre will provide students from 13 programs with real-world experiences that mirror the realities they will face in the workplace. These training opportunities will equip them to fill vital and in-demand career roles in Manitoba’s health-care system from their first day on the job. Read More →
Transformational gift — the largest in RRC Polytech’s history — positions the College to produce the talent and expertise vital to the continued success and growth of Manitoba’s creative industries.
For more than 70 years, creative thinkers have explored ideas and sharpened their skills at RRC Polytech. Today, a $15-million gift from the Schroeder Foundation paves the way for continued growth and opportunity in the creative arts for the College, its students and the province of Manitoba.
Creative industries are at the core of RRC Polytech, and they are growing in Manitoba thanks to a local talent pool that continues to thrive.
The Schroeder Institute of Entertainment and Media Arts has been created to support those industries — and the province — in reaching the next level in this period of growth by ensuring that a pipeline of newly skilled local talent continues to flow and fill crucial industry roles, while engaging more deeply with industry partners and undertaking exciting opportunities to foster innovation through applied research.
Manitoba is increasingly becoming more competitive in creative areas across the prairies, the country and beyond. More productions are being filmed in Winnipeg and throughout the province, and more creative businesses are opening their doors while local companies are making their mark beyond our borders. Local training and talent are crucial to the success of the businesses that choose to operate here, and that is where RRC Polytech — and the Schroeder Institute — come in.
“RRC Polytech and the Schroeder Foundation have a shared vision for the future and what we can make possible through education, collaboration and research,” says Fred Meier, the College’s President and CEO.
“The Schroeder Foundation’s decision to make this tremendous investment in RRC Polytech reflects that there are visionaries invested in our community who recognize the value of what we are doing here to support students on their way into careers in creative industries. This gift today will enable us to create so many more opportunities for Manitobans and our creative industries together.” Read More →
Earlier this summer, the federal and provincial government announced over $12 million in combined funding towards community initiatives and organizations working to end gender-based violence.
RRC Polytech’s Shelter Support Worker micro-credential will receive $350,000 to continue to offer this important tuition-free program – one of 19 organizations in Manitoba to receive such support.
At the July announcement, the Hon. Marci Ien, federal Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister, joined the Hon. Nahanni Fontaine, provincial Minister Responsible for Women and Gender Equity, to announce the combined funding — $6.2 million in federal support, and $6.35 million from the province through Year Two of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
“We are honoured to be a part of this announcement and receive support for our tuition-free Shelter Support Worker micro-credential,” said Christine Watson, RRC Polytech’s Vice-President, Academic. “This training prepares current and future shelter workers to support those in need of refuge from difficult and sometimes dangerous situations. RRC Polytech is proud to be a partner in creating a safer Manitoba for all.”
The micro-credential program is the first of its kind in Manitoba and was designed with industry partners to address skill gaps, meet community needs and improve staffing levels and delivery service in homeless and family violence shelters across the province.
Last year, RRC Polytech celebrated its first cohort of 23 students successfully completing the program and next month will host a ceremony for an additional 19 who will complete the second cohort. Read More →
RRC Polytech Nursing student Sophie Walker has received a $30,000 grant from the inaugural Canadian Colleges for a Resilient Recovery (C2R2) and Wawanesa Climate Champions: Youth Innovation Grant for her project, Climate Resilient Nursing.
“As a founding member of Canadian Colleges for Resilient Recovery, RRC Polytech has made a commitment to preparing students to use the skills they’ve learned and make real-world impacts,” says Dr. Christine Watson, RRC Polytech’s Vice-President, Academic and Co-Chair of the C2R2 Steering Committee.
“As a leading post-secondary institution, we play a vital role in advancing sustainability through our academic programs and applied research. Sophie’s project is an exciting reminder of how our students can help us move toward a more sustainable future. We are also very pleased that a Winnipeg-based organization such as Wawanesa has provided such a unique investment to support students’ research to positively impact climate action.”
Walker’s Climate Resilient Nursing project aims to address nursing professionals’ lack of capacity to address climate change–related health care system vulnerabilities and resilience. The project will increase climate awareness among nurses, help nursing students develop practical skills to become more climate conscious in their future careers and create a comprehensive resource guide for future students and instructors at RRC Polytech.
“I am very grateful to receive this grant and excited to dive deeper into the research,” says Walker. “I have been interested in research since my first year in nursing school back in late 2019, and in the last three weeks I’ve had incredible support from my instructors and researchers at RRC Polytech in finding an idea and creating the proposal.
“Receiving this grant means I can help to make a difference and leave a lasting change. It will also help me gain valuable experience for my future career.”
Walker worked with her Nursing instructors and with the College’s Research Partnerships & Innovation team on the project, which was inspired by instructor Jennifer Morin, who Walker says is passionate about the subject and has a wealth of knowledge that helped her with the application.
She is one of five Youth Innovation Grant recipients. Each grant is given to a student from a C2R2 partner institution to launch or enhance a climate adaptation or climate mitigation project. RRC Polytech is one of the founding partners of C2R2 and currently offers six micro-credential courses aimed at clean tech and social innovation.
RRC Polytech is once again a top research institution in the country, earning the 14th spot in Re$earch Infosource’s annual ranking of Canada’s top 50 research colleges, released last week.
“RRC Polytech makes innovation possible for our partners in industry and community — and every successful project builds trust in our technology, facilities and expertise,” says Jamie Wilson, the College’s Vice-President, Indigenous Strategy, Research and Business Development.
“Today’s rankings reflect the College’s growing reputation for consistency and productivity, which is driven by the work of our Research Partnerships & Innovation enterprise and at our three Technology Access Centres.
“They also reinforce that our approach of strengthening relationships with partners and funders across all sectors, driving alignment between stakeholders and valuing sustainability is accelerating applied research innovation here in Manitoba.”
In the 2022 fiscal year, RRC Polytech completed 170 applied research projects via 117 research partnerships — almost 60 more than the previous year — ranking it third in the Medium Tier category and fourth nationwide.
By maintaining its average of $7.4 million for a second consecutive year, Manitoba’s polytechnic also remains on par with the per-college provincial average of sponsored research income in Alberta, and only slightly behind Ontario’s.
As an added feature to its annual publication, Canada’s Innovation Leaders 2023, Re$earch Infosource also shines a spotlight on college-industry research income as measured by grants, contracts or contributions received from industry sources over the past five years, where RRC Polytech again showed a remarkably consistent annual average of just over $7 million from 2018-2022. Read More →
RRC Polytech has become the first post-secondary in Manitoba to the sign the SDG Accord, committing to embed the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into its education, research, leadership, operations, administration and engagement activities.
The 17 SDGs represent an ambitious call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. They align with the values in RRC Polytech’s strategic plan and directly support the College’s commitments.
“Our primary objective is training the workforce of today and tomorrow, so we are uniquely positioned to lead transformative change and build a more sustainable future — and the SDGs are a valuable tool to help us focus our efforts,” says RRC Polytech President Fred Meier.
“Sustainability is a journey without a final destination, so we’re prepared and excited to build on the current initiatives led by our Environmental Stewardship and Campus Renewal team and broaden our approach to include research, academics and all areas of College operations.”
The SDGs are a global blueprint for all people around the world to improve health and education, reduce inequality, spur economic growth and tackle climate change. They aim to achieve peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. While each goal has its own separate objective, they are indivisibly linked and interdependent.
“We can’t have good health and well-being without clean water, and we can’t have sustainable, inclusive communities without reducing inequality,” says Sustainability Specialist Stephanie Fulford. “So while the goals are ambitious, they reflect the scope of our global challenges, give us real targets to strive toward and a pathway to achieve them.”
“We also recognize that to achieve these goals will require all of us, in every sector of society, to work together — which is why formally signing the accord is so important.” Read More →
Red River College Polytechnic’s Board of Governors (BOG) has announced its unanimous decision to extend the contract of President and CEO Fred Meier until July 2028.
“President Meier has surpassed the Board’s expectations in all he has accomplished since joining RRC Polytech,” says board Chair Loren Cisyk. “Extending his contract today ensures we will continue to build for the future with his strong, visionary leadership in place. We share our complete confidence in Mr. Meier’s ability to lead RRC Polytech forward as it strives to meet and exceed the needs of students and staff, as well as our partners in industry and the community.”
Since joining RRC Polytech in July 2020, Meier has been integral in charting a bold new path for the College. This includes rebranding the College to RRC Polytech, embracing its identity as Manitoba’s polytechnic, and creating its Strategic Plan 2022-2026: In Front of What’s Ahead.
This ambitious plan commits RRC Polytech to transform its learning models to amplify its impact across Manitoba, cements the College’s commitment towards Truth and Reconciliation and the pursuit of equity, diversity and inclusion in everything it does, and focuses its efforts on deepening partnerships to maximize prosperity across industry and community.
Through Meier’s leadership, RRC Polytech has taken many necessary and meaningful steps towards advancing the goals of the strategic plan, including a 98 per cent completion rate of RRC Polytech’s Comprehensive Campaign, In Front of What’s Ahead.
Thanks to the support of generous donors and industry partners, gifts are making a direct impact for today’s learners and will allow the College to create more supports and programs to help future students achieve success — from new and increased scholarships and bursaries, to the donation of computers, the launch of a new mentorship program for Indigenous learners, and the opening of the Centre for Newcomer Integration and the Price Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechatronics. Read More →
As part of National Philanthropy Day celebrations, longtime RRC Polytech donors Walter and Maria Schroeder are being recognized for supporting organizations, institutions and individuals — in Manitoba and throughout Canada — with the 2023 Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Manitoba Outstanding Philanthropist Award.
RRC Polytech and the University of Manitoba co-nominated the duo — founders of The Schroeder Foundation, a Canadian charitable organization — in recognition of their dedication to Winnipeg youth.
“Walter and Maria Schroeder’s work has truly been transformative, and today RRC Polytech is so proud to celebrate their contributions to our community as Manitoba’s 2023 Outstanding Philanthropists,” says RRC Polytech president Fred Meier.
“The Schroeder Foundation has awarded hundreds of full post-secondary scholarships to institutions in Winnipeg — including more than 180 to RRC Polytech — which include tuition, books and wrap-around supports.
“Schroeder Foundation students now also have the opportunity to participate in RRC Polytech’s Transition to College program, which helps them start their programs with the knowledge and confidence they need to succeed on day one.”
Every year, the Schroeder Foundation donates millions of dollars to organizations, with a focus on improving health care, providing economic education, and empowering youth and Indigenous communities across the country. The Foundation currently invests more than $3 million annually in Winnipeg alone. Read More →
RRC Polytech campuses are located on the lands of Anishinaabe, Ininiwak, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dené, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis.
We recognize and honour Treaty 3 Territory Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, the source of Winnipeg’s clean drinking water. In addition, we acknowledge Treaty Territories which provide us with access to electricity we use in both our personal and professional lives.