Pursuing Excellence in Research Reflections from UNESCO Research Chairs in Canada

Assessing or even just defining what excellence in research means can become a monumental task that can lead to frustration. The main reason is that research can take many forms depending on the discipline in which a scientist is working. In this reflection paper, we discuss the potential principles that could be applied when thinking about excellence in research in the context of academic advancement and resourcing. We acknowledge that there are many variants of the term and trying to add a strict framework may lead to discrimination against not only some disciplines but also cultures, as research has a social component that should not be forgotten