Strategic Plan 2026- 2028
This Strategic Plan was co-created by the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy (SPOT) faculty and staff and builds upon the foundation established in the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan.
In 2023, the School's mission and vision were updated to guide the strategic planning process. Between 2022 and 2023, SPOT faculty, administrative staff, and students participated in a series of interactive brainstorming sessions to identify the strategic priorities most important to the School's future. Insights from these sessions were synthesized by a steering committee and refined through ongoing discussion and feedback.
This collaborative and consensus-driven process resulted in the development of SPOT's Strategic Plan, which is organized around four strategic themes and a set of strategic objectives designed to advance the School's mission and vision.
Strategic Plan Themes
The 2026-2028 Strategic Plan retains the four strategic themes established in the 2023-2025 plan. These themes are supported by strategic objectives across three key organizational areas: education, environment and infrastructure, and research. Objectives were updated in 2026, through a collaborative process, to align with the current School and University environments.
The lightbulb image below illustrates the relationship between the Plan's four strategic themes and the three organizational areas that support their implementation.
Themes:
Technology and Artificial Intelligence
The application of hardware, software and machines to optimize education, research and administrative activities.
Social Accountability
The responsibility to direct education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation (WHO, 1997).
Community Engagement & Intersectoral Partnerships
The processes of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well-being of those people, in order to bring about environmental and behavioural changes that will improve the health of the community and its members (CDC, 1997).
Knowledge Mobilization
A dynamic and iterative process that includes synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically-sound application of knowledge to improve the health of Canadians, provide more effective health services and products, and strengthen the health care system (CIHR, 2023).
Objectives:
Strategic objectives in the areas of Education, Research, and Environment & Infrastructure were developed by the SPOT community. Each objective has a clearly defined working group, timeline, and initiatives to address the four strategic themes.
Education
1. Identify emerging technologies and AI in rehabilitation education, existing expertise, and potential partners.
2. Engage people with lived experience for teaching, participating in committees, strategic planning, and research at SPOT.
3. Foster ongoing knowledge exchange with strategic partners in the clinical community, with the goal of creating a more responsive curriculum.
Environment and Infrastructure
4. Apply and update as needed the code of conduct related to the discussion and implementation of policies, practices, and initiatives related to social accountability (i.e., Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)).
5. Optimize selected School administrative and communication processes using technological platforms.
6. Create optimal and inclusive environments through space management and relocation planning.
Research
7. Foster a sense of collectiveness within SPOT.
8. Increase awareness of and encourage collaboration among SPOT faculty and the broader McGill community by creating connections around technologies and methodologies.
9. Ensure faculty remain informed and updated on research-related initiatives and granting agency requirements
