SDG 8 - Promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Find the most recent Gazette stories for this goal here.

Teaching and Learning:

• In 2017, students from a Grenfell Campus entrepreneurship class created and distributed a survey to help develop sustainable tourism in Flat Bay. This partnership also provided in-community employment options for the Mi’kmaq band and highlighted local Indigenous culture.
• In 2018, Emera Inc. made a $7 million contribution toward student entrepreneurship and innovation programming at Memorial. This programming aims to create partnerships between government, business, post-secondary institutions, and citizens, as well as aiding in growing the knowledge economy in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Memorial launched the Master of Applied Science program in Safety and Risk Engineering in 2018. The program aims to give students a deeper understanding of safety and risk engineering operational parameters, and allow them to contribute to the goal of safe and sustainable development. 
• The Master of Occupational Health and Safety (MOHS) is an interdisciplinary program designed to equip graduates to step into professional and administrative positions in health and safety. The program covers a wide range of OHS issues, and focuses on the history and social science of OHS, ergonomics, occupation hygiene, and workplace organization among other topics.
• The Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship (MCE) supports early-stage entrepreneurs to develop and launch their own businesses. The centre offers individual coaching and mentorships, entrepreneurial work terms, startup funding programs, a student ambassador team, events, and networking opportunities.

Research: 

• The Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Economic and Cultural Transformation (JChair) focuses on research in the areas of global and local cultures, strategies for immigration integration and retention, diasporas, and demographic changes in order to promote sustainable economic and cultural prosperity in the province.
• The Harris Centre launched the Thriving Regions Partnership Process in 2017 to provide funding and support to Memorial and Grenfell faculty, staff and students so that they can build meaningful research partnerships that help promote thriving social and economic regions. The program has held several workshops throughout the province, provides research funding, and aided in the develop of a local leadership team to help with planning and implementation.
  
• The Functional Foods Sensory Laboratory on Grenfell Campus, and the Navigate Entrepreneurship Centre, a partnership of Grenfell Campus and College of the North Atlantic, received funding in 2021 to increase the province’s food processing capacity, expand the functional food’s research program, and support local entrepreneurial activities.
• In 2017, Dr. Kara Arnold from MUN’s business faculty won an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to study the impact of sexual orientation on hiring and promotion in jobs that are seen as traditionally male or female. She hoped to make organizations more aware of how bias arising from the lack of fit with gender stereotypes affects hiring practices.
• Memorial offers the Genesis program to help develop and support new, innovative technology start-ups in Newfoundland and Labrador. Genesis also works with the federal government to help immigrant entrepreneurs who have great business ideas establish roots in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Public Engagement:

• In 2020, Memorial University and SmartICE entered a partnership to provide young people in Northern communities and at Memorial to provide young people with opportunities to learn workplace skills and improve their employability. Inuit youth from the community were hired to support the manufacturing of SmartBUOY monitoring devices in order to help their communities adapt to climate change.
• Through the Harris Centre’s Thriving Regions Partnership Process, Dr. Patrick Gagnon, a faculty member in the Department of Ocean Sciences researched sea urchins in 2020 in hopes to develop food security and advance natural resource development in the Baie Verte Peninsula. His research involved mapping the location and abundance of sea urchins in the area to create new jobs and help to retain youth in the rural communities.
• Marine Institute participated in the four year INVEST Co-op Indonesia project, beginning in 2017. The project aimed to help support small scale aquaculture in four regencies in South Sulawesi, and introduce climate change resistant practices to improve yield of production and economic wellbeing in the region. 
• In 2019, Dr. Jamie Skidmore, a professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, collaborated with communities on the Southwest coast as part of the Thriving Regions Project. His project, Storytelling through Shadow Puppetry on the Southwest Coast, worked to use local storytelling to develop tourism products, generate revenue, and strengthen regional arts-based tourism opportunities.
• Memorial’s Centre for Social Enterprise (CSE) is helping to support a new generation of socially-inspired business leaders through a collaborative start-up environment. Some activities offered by the Centre include student work experiences, the Social Ventures Incubator, and a graduate program in social enterprise and entrepreneurship.

Administration:

• In 2019, Memorial signed a 10-year partnership with Nunavut Arctic College (NAC) to help expand post-secondary programs available to learners in Nunavut with the expressed purpose of increasing Inuit employment. Some initiatives of the partnership include the Nunavut Teacher Education Program and the Inuit Bachelor of Education Program, aiming to prepare Inuit teachers to work in schools in Labrador and Nunavut.
• In 2021, Memorial created the Memorial University Youth Foster Support Program to support opportunities for youth that have been in foster care. The program will provide financial support including full-time undergraduate tuition and other required institutional fees, for a maximum of four years and up to eight semesters.
• There are significant opportunities for students to gain work experience during their time at Memorial, including programs offered through career services, including the MUCEP, ISWEP, GradSWEP, and SWASP programs.