Let’s reIMAGINE the future of uOttawa, together

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Our community has been instrumental in helping the University of Ottawa reach its current ranking. We now ask for your advice, your engagement, and your support to build on our accomplishments and fulfill our ambitions to make an even bigger difference.

This is an important moment for the University of Ottawa. By working together, we will propel uOttawa into the very highest ranks of international universities. That is why we have worked so hard to align our vision, our strategic priorities, and our new campaign: reIMAGINE. We know what we’re capable of and with the help of our community, we know we can get there together. Are you with us?

While every campaign has fundraising priorities, people are what truly makes those priorities come to life. With that in mind, we’re going to make this campaign about people and about their stories. Over the coming months, we will be bringing you these stories and many important perspectives about our shared priorities.

Working together during the pandemic has shown us that uOttawa can pivot more rapidly, collaborate more effectively, and innovate more ambitiously than we ever thought possible. And now we’re charting a new course based on that transformative capacity.

We’ve learned to think about health more holistically, and to make physical, emotional, and mental health a priority in everything we do. We also understand more clearly than ever that it is our duty to welcome and support members of marginalized communities — Indigenous, BIPOC, LGBTQI2S+, neuro-diverse and differently-abled — at uOttawa.

That’s what this campaign strives to do — to reIMAGINE the very role of a university in society. We are stepping up to rethink not just what is possible, but also how we address these challenges, how we work together, and how we can build a better society. And how will we do that?

The funds we will raise in this campaign will transform our university for the next generation, so that our students, faculty, and alumni can continue to change the world.

In 2019, we launched our new strategic framework, Transformation 2030, with the explicit intent that it would not collect dust on a shelf but would serve as a results-oriented action plan to drive real change and achieve real results. And that is exactly what it is doing as we reorient the campaign to fuel that transformation.

What are trying to achieve? We want to seize the momentum that has seen uOttawa nearly double its student population over the past 20 years and has caused it to rocket up the international rankings to become one of the top 150 universities in the world. As a research hub, we are now punching far above our weight in terms of real-world impact in biotech, AI, photonics and, yes, in the humanities too. And we have been busy consolidating our well-earned reputation as a world leader in research on the Francophonie.

Having already achieved so much, uOttawa is now ready to fulfill its potential and to claim its place as a globally influential and illustrious university. We want to mean more to more people and more communities around the world, across the country, and here at home in Ottawa. Our community has been instrumental in helping uOttawa reach its current position. We now ask for your advice, your engagement, and your support to build upon our accomplishments and to fulfill our ambitions to make an even bigger difference.

To explore our campaign priorities and key initiatives, we urge you to visit uottawa.ca/giving.