Mission

CNRIS : Consortium national de recherche sur l'intégration sociale The Consortium national de recherche sur l'intégration sociale is a consensus-building organization whose goal is to energize and foster the development of research in the fields of intellectual disability and pervasive developmental disorders. Inspired by Quebec approaches to integration and social participation, the Consortium pursues the following objectives:

  • Foster networking amongst researchers and partners, as well as the development of research projects and programs in the areas targeted by its mission
  • Support institutions in developing a culture of research based on their pace and their research concerns
  • Support orientations that deal with important social issues for users, parents, caregivers and service managers
  • Foster the emergence of research that encourages or brings other sectors (sectoral, intersectoral or community) to invest in the development, adaptation and improvement of services to persons with an intellectual disability or a pervasive developmental disorder
  • Encourage the dissemination of research results in various formats
  • Collaborate with health and social service organizations in developing the ability to use research results in designing intervention programs and management methods
  • Establish links with private sponsors who support the mission of the corporation
  • Invest, in partnership with others, in training young researchers in university settings or in the workplace

History

A decade ago, several practitioners from the field of intellectual disability along with a few individuals from university settings came together over a common interest in the development of research in the field of intellectual disability.

Out of this common interest the Consortium National de Recherche sur l'Intégration Sociale (CNRIS) was constituted by letters patent on June 12, 1995.

At the time, the new corporation comprised several members from four rehabilitation centres for intellectual disability (CRDI - centre de réadaptation en déficience intellectuelle) : CRDI Norman-Laramée, CSDI Mauricie et Centre-du-Québec, CRDI Montérégie-Est, and Centre du Florès. The university members were from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and the Université de Montréal.

By the year 2000, the first efforts at pooling human, financial and material resources for developing research in intellectual disability began to bear fruit. Six new CRDI joined the CNRIS and there were now researchers from four Quebec universities.

In 2003, as a result of various consultations and a new membership wave amongst CRDI and researchers, the CNRIS was able to position itself as a major partnership structure in Quebec for research in the areas of intellectual disability and pervasive development disorders.

This project, which was initially made possible by the work of a few pioneers, today involves twenty CRDI and an impressive number of university researchers devoted to these two areas of research.