NEWS: Institute of Island Studies launches the COVID-19 Island Insight Series

Institute of Island Studies launches the COVID-19 Island Insight Series

Series will examine how islands around the world have performed during the pandemic

November 19, 2020 —

The Institute of Island Studies at UPEI is pleased to announce the launch of the COVID-19 Island Insights Series, an initiative led by the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law & Governance (SCELG) and the Institute of Island Studies, in collaboration with Island Innovation. The series aims to bring together critical assessments of how specific islands around the world have performed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent to which their recovery plans are able to promote long-term resilience and sustainability.

The COVID-19 Island Insights Series will lead to a series of “thematic primers” aimed at assisting policy-makers and wider island-related stakeholders to encourage islands to move to a more resilient and sustainable future.

Every two weeks, Island Innovation will release COVID-19 Island Insights Series reports from two different islands via their website (islandinnovation.co/blog).

The first two instalments of the series were launched on November 2, and feature insights from Malta and the Egadi Islands (Italy). The next installments, released on November 16, focus on Grenada and Trinidad & Tobago. 

For more information about the COVID-19 Island Insights Series, to read the reports, and for a full list of the islands the series will cover, head to islandstudies.com/island-insights-series


NEWS: Vital Signs report provides snapshot of quality of life on PEI

Vital Signs report provides snapshot of the quality of life on Prince Edward Island

November 19, 2019—

A new report from the IIS in partnership with the Community Foundation of PEI (CFPEI) provides a snapshot of the quality of life and well-being on Prince Edward Island. Vital Signs brings together publicly available research data, the analysis of subject experts, and focus group feedback from private, public, and not-for-profit sectors from different regions of the Island. The result is an easy-to-digest, comprehensive look at a wide range of interconnected topics from health to housing to education and the environment.  

To learn more and to read the report, visit islandstudies.com/vital-signs-signes-vitaux 

NEWS: New report and survey conducted by the IIS for the Government of PEI: Recruiting talent to PEI

October 1, 2018 —

New report and survey conducted by UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies for the Government of Prince Edward Island:
Recruiting Talent to Prince Edward Island Survey:
Build a Career. Create a Life.


In 2018, in a bid to create evidence-based policy-making around the theme of repatriation, the Prince Edward Island Department of Workforce and Advanced Learning contracted the Institute of Island Studies to undertake a research project to determine the opportunities for and barriers to Islanders returning home. This report is the result of that research.

Click here for full details and to download a copy of the report.

NEWS: Final report of the Institute of Island Studies Futures Committee

Final report of the Institute of Island Studies Futures Committee

April 22, 2014—

In the fall of 2013, the University of Prince Edward Island created a committee to advise on the future operations of the University’s longstanding and widely respected institute for research and public policy: the Institute of Island Studies. The Institute of Island Studies Futures Committee, in cooperation with UPEI’s Vice-President Research and Graduate Studies, and Interim Vice-President Academic has released its final report, entitled One Step Back, and Two Steps Forward, which is available for download and review.

Using as its starting point an external consultants’ report commissioned in 2013, the Report endorses the current mandate of the Institute as a centre for the comparative study of Prince Edward Island and other islands, and outlines a number of options for its future structure and operations. Two of the key recommendations entail adding a national and international scope to the membership of the Institute’s advisory committee and a strong commitment to the Institute’s role as an honest broker of public dialogue about key issues confronting Prince Edward Island. To that end, the Institute will organize two public forums during 2014, one in the spring and one in the fall, on water resources and land use issues.

In its report, the Committee expresses its confidence in the future of the Institute of Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island and of the strong support from the University and community.

The full text of the report can be downloaded here.