Lambton College’s research department rises to prominence

     Researchers at Lambton College’s research and innovation department are enjoying the fruits of their labour after yet again being ranked by researchinfosource.com as the top research college in Ontario, and number two in Canada. 

     The Sarnia-based college has already been on the top– 50 list multiple times in the last five years, getting the number one spot in 2018, as well as being in the top three for all five years. The rankings are determined by research funding received, from both the government sources and specific organizations.

    The projects that the department takes on are not bound by one idea or goal. Instead, each project has qualifiers that decide if it will proceed or not- there must be a need for the project, funds to make it happen, and an impact that it will have on the community. 

     However, Lambton College did not always have such a strong research department. In fact, for 38 years, the College did not have a research department at all until opening theirs relatively recently in 2007. Every journey begins with a single step and the department’s current ranking speaks for itself. 

     Andrea Hands is the manager of research, development and outreach for Lambton College’s Research and Innovation department. She says that research departments often start slow, and that there are many things needed to get them off the ground. 

     “It’s been a bit of a growth to get to this point,” said Hands. “What is really important is to have a college that’s supportive of research. It has to start with investing, first of all, in a department, so you have to hire people, and then you have to build capacity. Capacity is also infrastructure, so you have to start creating labs. There’s a little bit of an initial investment that needs to happen, so the college needs to be on board. It’s very important for the college to look at its community and how it can support it.” 

     After the department was up and running, she says that Lambton College’s research was successful for several reasons, especially due to branching out with projects in other communities as well as continuing to work through COVID-19. 

     “As much as I talk about how we support our community, and we really do,” said Hands, “Sarnia isn’t a very big community. When we look at our projects that we conduct, probably 90 per cent of them are located outside of Sarnia, and about 10 per cent within the region. We wouldn’t be able to be the number one college in Ontario for research if we only relied on local companies to do projects with.” 

     Hands says that the research department continued to work through COVID-19, likely pushing them ahead of some of the competition on the 2020 list. 

     “Last March, researchers had to go home, but we did have research continue,” said Hands. “Some of the researchers brought the projects home to their houses, in their garages and basements. However we were deemed essential very early on for research. So I think they were only home for a month and then they were back in… the laboratories.”  

     The department has clearly come a long way from its inception from a few small projects to large and important undertakings. They were deemed essential shortly after March 2020, and have been working on several projects relating to COVID-19 since. 

      With consistently high rankings and many important projects constantly underway, it seems that Lambton College’s research department is proving to be essential indeed.