Dear Deans/Director and Associate deans Research and Research Liaison Officer:

As you are aware, our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan for the purposes of the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program, has been well-developed and approved by the CRC review process. In this Plan, we exceed our target for the inclusion of women, visible minorities, and Indigenous persons. However, we are below the target for persons with disabilities (by one). Given difficulties in measuring these targets and the numerous reasons why an individual may choose not to disclose a disability, this may not accurately reflect the number of faculty members with disabilities.

The CRC reserves the right to refuse further nominations unless we meet our targets for all four federally designated groups. To this end, we are initiating a call to encourage all faculty members who self-identify as having a disability to apply for a Tier 2 CRC (any research area). The self declaration form is attached to this memo for distribution. Faculty members who self-identify do not have to give details of their disability. This information will help the University accurately represent its needs. I would like to assure all faculty members that they will be supported and that this information will be kept confidential. The Vice-President (Research and International) and Deans will work with Valerie Williams, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant in Human Resources to ensure this is a respectful and confidential process.

In order to allow sufficient time to prepare a competitive CRC application for the October 2019 intake, we are requesting that this letter be shared with all faculty members in your unit. We are seeking faculty members who self-identify as having a disability and who meet the Tier 2 CRC eligibility criteria:

* less than 10 years (adjusted by any interruptions for parental leaves, caring for family members or sick leaves) from the completion of their terminal degree;

* competitive against the main CRC criteria (excellent research productivity, emerging research leader in Canada and beyond, evidence of HQP training, ability to attract competitive research funding).

Candidates should submit to you:

* a current CV;

* a maximum two-page description of the research program they will develop over the five-year term of the chair.

Please describe in your accompanying letter how this research fits with your unit's strategic research plan and how this research fits with the University's strategic research plan.

There is a limit of one application per faculty/unit so we ask you to select the best candidate from all submissions received by your office and send the best package only to me by NO LATER THAN 4:30 PM ON JULY 19, 2019.

Note that although we normally reserve Tier 2 CRCs for recruitment only, we will use this CRC for retention. Also note that this CRC can be a CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC Chair - it is open to all disciplines.

Thank you.

Digvir S. Jayas, O.C., Ph.D., D.Sc., P.Eng., P.Ag., FRSC Vice-President (Research and International) and Distinguished Professor [UMLogoSignature] 202 Administration Building 66 Chancellors Circle University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3T 2N2 Phone: 204-474-9404 (office) Phone: 204-291-4505 (mobile) Fax: 204-261-1318 Email: digvir.jayas@umanitoba.camailto:digvir.jayas@umanitoba.ca Webpage: www.umanitoba.ca/researchhttp://www.umanitoba.ca/research