*At UNBC, the Health Research Institute connects students, researchers, health professionals and communities with the people, opportunities and ideas shaping health research across Northern BC.*
Research can start with data. It can also start with a conversation. A student meets a researcher after a seminar. A health professional brings a question from practice. Someone from another discipline sees the same problem from a different perspective. In a relatively small northern research community, those connections matter. Creating more of them is part of what the UNBC Health Research Institute, or HRI, is here to do.
HRI brings together experienced and emerging health researchers, including faculty, staff and students from across UNBC’s five faculties and the Division of Medical Sciences. Its community works across the determinants of health, health services and policy, population and public health, Indigenous health, health and the environment, and other areas connected to health and well-being. Health rarely fits neatly within one discipline. Neither does HRI.
## So, what does HRI actually offer?
Think of HRI as a place to find your way into UNBC’s wider health research community. Throughout the year, HRI shares research and student opportunities, events and presentations, funding and research updates, and ways to connect with people working across health research.
For students, that might mean finding a research opportunity, hearing from someone working in a field they are considering, presenting their own work or meeting researchers outside their department. For researchers and faculty, HRI provides opportunities to share work and connect across disciplines. For health professionals and community partners, it offers another point of connection with research happening at UNBC and across Northern BC. Sometimes it is even simpler: come to a seminar, grab lunch, hear about research you would not normally encounter and talk to someone new.
## Research beyond your usual circle
The HRI Seminar Series is one of the easiest places to start. Held monthly during the Fall and Winter semesters, the series creates space to engage with current health research from inside and outside UNBC. Recent seminars have explored decolonization, reconciliation and Indigenization in post-secondary education; biomechanics and rehabilitation; Indigenous Peoples and multiple sclerosis in Lheidli T’enneh Territory; work-related health inequities in rural and remote communities; and health among immigrant populations. That variety is part of the point. You might arrive because a topic caught your attention and leave knowing someone whose work you did not know existed.
HRI also co-hosts the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences Professorial Lecture Series, where recently promoted professors reflect on their research journeys, contributions and future directions.
## Students are already part of the research community
You do not need “researcher” in your job title to enter the conversation. HRI connects with students not only in health sciences and nursing, but also in psychology, social work, anthropology, education, First Nations Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies and other disciplines.
Students also have opportunities to share their own work. HRI hosts Honours Student Presentations, providing undergraduate researchers with a space to bring their research to a wider audience.
## Built in the North, connected across the North
HRI’s work extends beyond campus. The Institute serves as the Secretariat for a research partnership between UNBC, Northern Health and the Provincial Health Services Authority, created to strengthen collaboration among the three organizations. Through this partnership, Project and Seed Grants support collaborative research focused on health services and health outcomes in Northern BC, connecting academic research with the wider northern health community.
## Start with curiosity
There are many ways into health research. Attend a seminar. Follow a project. Present your work. Learn about funding. Meet someone working in an area you have never considered. HRI exists to make those pathways easier to see. In a place like Prince George, where the university, health system and community are closely connected, knowing who is doing what matters. A conversation today can become an idea tomorrow.
