The Metropolis Project AL CANADÀ (Overview, Achievements ... · CANADÀ. 23 Achievements and...

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The Metropolis Project

(Overview, Achievements,

Lessons Learned)

Forum Managing Immigration and

Diversity in Quebec and Canada

October 22-23, 2008

Barcelona

Presented by:

John Biles

Director, Partnerships and Knowledge Transfer

[email protected]

FÒRUM GESTIÓ DE LA IMMIGRACIÓ I L

A DIVERSITAT AL QUEBEC I AL CANADÀ

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Purpose of Presentation

• Provide a quick overview of the history,

structure, mandate, and funding of

Metropolis

• Describe achievements and outcomes

• Discuss the lessons learned that would be

useful to individuals/organizations thinking

about a similar sort of initiative



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What is Metropolis?



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History

• Conceived in 1992/93 by Meyer Burstein and DemetriosPapademetriou at OECD SOPEMI Meetings

• Funding secured for Canadian portion of the project in 1995

• Initial call for centre proposals in 1996

• Three centres, became four, and then five

• Three five-year funding phases

(1996/7-2002; 2002-2007; 2007-2012)



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Structure



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Structure (Cont.)

• Institutional Structures

– 5 University-based Centres of Excellence

– Secretariat based at Citizenship and Immigration

Canada

– International Secretariat

• Key Committee Infrastructure

– Interdepartmental Committee

– National Metropolis Committee

– International Steering Committee



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Mandate

• The basics of the mandate remain unchanged:

1) Volume

2) Focus

3) Utilization of Research

• Relative emphasis has shifted over time and the network itself has now come to be as highly valued as the research



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Mandate (cont.)

Activities/Outputs

Immediate Outcomes

Intermediate Outcomes

Impacts



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Knowledge Transfer

• Knowledge Transfer has always been a component of the project, but in Phase III it has been given a more central role.

• Rather than an end of process activity, it has now become the frame through which we view the entire range of activities within Metropolis

• Responsibilities for the Centres, the Secretariat AND the Federal Consortium are articulated for each element in the knowledge transfer spectrum

• In addition to strategies that combine face-to-face interactions, publications and web-based electronic knowledge transfer, more sophisticated typologies of target audiences (especially among the federal partners) have been developed



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Knowledge Transfer (cont.)



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Metropolis Project Funding• The Metropolis Project is funded by the Social Sciences and

Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and a consortium of federal partners led by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)

• Funds are transferred to five university-based Metropolis Centres of Excellence

– Atlantic, Montreal, Toronto, Prairies, Vancouver

• CIC houses a secretariat that is responsible for actively linking research to policy

• Supra-Centre funds for a national research competition and national-level knowledge transfer activities are managed by the National Metropolis Committee



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Funding (cont.)

• Core funding for the Centres began at $340,000 each/year in Phase I and increased slightly in Phase II

• Core funding for each Centre has declined to $307,000/year today

• Some funds were reallocated (roughly 25k per Centre annually) and all funding increases have gone to a national research competition and national-level knowledge transfer in Phase III

• Citizenship and Immigration Canada has increased both the number of staff and the funds available to the Secretariat to enhance knowledge transfer to the federal partners



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Funding (cont.)• The core funding for the Centres is NOT new money, it is money

already allocated to programs across the federal partners – Metropolis simply pools these pre-existing resources to enhance impact

• Both the Secretariat and the Centres leverage considerable funds from various sources for specific projects (on average roughly triple their core budgets)

• Much of the research funding through the Centres leads to successful large scale grants from funding agencies or to contract research with federal partners

• The annual National and International Metropolis Conferences which cost $500,000-$1,000,000 are funded through additional fund raising activities (roughly 50% of these costs are defrayed by registration fees)



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Funding (cont.)

• The host universities for the Centres contribute

substantive funding in terms of in-kind

contributions (teaching release time for Centre

Directors and Domain Leaders, space,

administrative support/services) and in some cases

funding for research

• The Government of British Columbia also

contributes $100,000/year to the B.C. Centre



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Achievements and Outcomes

Scale and Scope of Conferences

The major national and international conferences are centripetalforces in animating the Metropolis network

•The First International Metropolis Conference held in Milan Italy in 1996 attracted 300 participants from twenty countries and four international organizations. The 11th International Metropolis Conference in Lisbon involved 995 participants from 43 countries

•To use another metric, when the tightly focused workshops were introduced at the Third International Metropolis Conference in Israel in 1998, 16 workshops were organized. By the 11th Conference in Lisbon in 2006 this had grown to 75 workshops. This year in Bonn this has swollen to more than 90.



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Achievements and Outcomes (cont.)

• The First National Metropolis Conference held in Edmonton, Alberta in 1997 attracted roughly 200 participants from across Canada and a number of international delegates

• The Tenth National Conference held in Halifax, Nova Scotia in April 2008 attracted 925 participants with 99 workshops and roundtables



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(cont.)

• Having a Centre in your region matters



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(cont.)

• Mixture of policymakers, researchers/graduate

students and NGOs/local partners improves over

time



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Achievements and Outcomes (cont.)

Volume of Research

• In the first four years of Phase II the Centres produced 44 books; 86 chapters; 306 popular articles; 274 peer-reviewed articles; 120 working papers; and 760 presentations

• In comparison, the Canadian Policy Research Networks Inc. which received 25% more funding than the Metropolis Centres produced 140 research reports, 111 presentations and 92 summaries



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Achievements and Outcomes (cont.)Volume of Researchers

• Over 461 researchers affiliated with the Centres in 2006 as compared to 333 in 2002

• In 2005-06, 259 graduate students were involved in Centre research and activities (internships, research projects, seminars, workshops) as compared to 104 in 2001

• The SSHRC Mid-Term Review Committee also highlighted the new Masters’ Level Program on Immigration and Settlement Studies at Ryerson as an excellent example of a new training initiative facilitated by the Metropolis Project



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Achievements and Outcomes (cont.)Focus

• Phase I: Centres required to have some, but not all six domains of research covered: 1) economic; 2) education; 3) social; 4) citizenship and culture; 5) public services and political; 6) physical infrastructure

• Phase II: Domain structure overlaid with a requirement that 50% of research funds address 11 policy-research priority areas

• Phase III: Domain structure revised, incorporating six policy-research priority areas: 1) Citizenship and Social, Cultural and Civic Integration; 2) Economic and Labour Market Integration; 3) Family, Children and Youth; 4) Housing and Neighbourhoods; 5) Justice, Policing and Security; 6) Welcoming Communities: the Role of Host Communities in Attracting, Integrating and Retaining Newcomers and Minorities



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Achievements and Outcomes (cont.)Utilization

• 8,000 person database of contacts from over 30 countries around the world

• In 2005-06 there were 1,770,968 visits to the Metropolis Web with 1,539,491 downloads

• From 1999-2004, Metropolis was cited 673 times in English newspapers

• 60% of surveyed Citizenship and Immigration Canada staff had made use of Metropolis

• 46% of survey respondents and approximately half of interviewees using Metropolis Centres’ research are doing so to inform policy discussions

• 76% of CIC web survey respondents assessing the importance of the Metropolis Project believe that it is important to CIC and 73% believe it is important to Canada



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Achievements and Outcomes (cont.)Network

• The networks that the Metropolis Project have created over time are, “the strongest contribution flowing from Metropolis funding” adding that the key value-added element of the Metropolis Secretariat is the support for networks. The SSHRC Mid-Term Review Committee states that these networks have helped establish a culture of collaboration among the diverse actors interested or involved in immigration issues

• CIC Internal Review found that Metropolis improves relationships between various immigration stakeholders (such as local NGOs, local government partners and academics), thus promoting greater co-operation, information-sharing and more strategically targeted problem-solving

• 63% of CIC web survey respondents said that one of the three most important functions of Metropolis is to provide links between the Government of Canada, academics and others)

• Almost half of interviewees at CIC and Metropolis indicated that the Project improves partnerships with other departments, other countries and also municipalities and NGOs



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Lessons Learned

1) Infrastructure and Governance Structures Matter

2) Leveraging Funds is Critical

3) Multi-level Leadership Matters

4) Partnerships Matter

5) Politics Matter

6) Predictability is Key

7) No Group Has A Monopoly on Knowledge

8) A Sense of Ownership is Important



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Lessons Learned (cont.)

9) Clear Roles and Responsibilities are Vital

10) A Dedicated Team is Essential to Act as Knowledge Brokers

11) Continuity Matters

12) Innovations Should be Nurtured, Evaluated and Generalized When Appropriate

13) Resources (both Human and Financial) Need to Be Aligned with Priorities

14) Engagement Matters

15) Branding Matters



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Conclusion

• Many lessons can be learned from Metropolis that can help jump start a similar initiative

• Trust builds over time, and some of the evolution that has occurred within Metropolis has only occurred because the partnership has matured and levels of trust have increased

• Bring all of the possible relevant stakeholders to the table AT THE BEGINNING, develop a governance structure that is a positive-sum game, nurture the network wisely and the sky will be the limit



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