About the Centre

The Centre on Governance is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year!

The Centre on Governance was created in 1997 as an academic research center of the University of Ottawa. Established in 1848, the University of Ottawa is now the largest bilingual (English-French) university in the world, and it ranks globally among the top 200 universities. The University is known for its world-class education and research excellence and is a member of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, a group representing Canada’s top research-intensive universities.

Located in the heart of Canada’s capital, the University and the Centre on Governance have access to critical Canadian federal institutions. The Centre on Governance is supported jointly by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation and the Faculty of Social Sciences. The CoG is also closely affiliated with the School of Political Studies, which offers programs in political science and public administration.

The Centre comprises some fifty professors, affiliated researchers and students who conduct research on the topics related to the Centre's main lines of research

 

The mission of the Centre on Governance (COG) is to better understand governance phenomena as well as contemporary administrative and policy problems affecting governmental and non-governmental actors. To achieve its mission, the COG produces, mobilizes and teaches knowledge based on both basic research and more applied research in order to improve the functioning of governmental and non-governmental organizations and the design and implementation of public policies. The COG's knowledge mobilization plan is based on five axes: 

1. Development of internal and external partnerships
2. Organization of academic events (conferences, seminars, lunch talks)
3. Publication of knowledge (publication of academic journals and research papers)
4. Professional training (online and face-to-face training activities and development of a series of educational videos on governance). 
5. Support for early-career faculty and graduate students.

 

The COG's activities are structured around eight main research themes:

1. Management and public governance
2. Governance of cultural policies
3. Urban and territorial governance
4. Governance of social policies
5. Public financial governance
6. University governance
7. Federalism and multilevel governance
8. Global governance