Rural Development Institute (RDI) was established by the Brandon University in 1989 to facilitate academic research and remains as a leading source of information on issues affecting rural communities in Western Canada and beyond by acting as a conduit between rural research information and community involvement in rural involvement. RDI is the first contact for many community organizations interested in rural issues.
The mandate of RDI is applied research, knowledge dissemination, and learning and is widely available to the public either in printed form or by means of public lectures, seminars, workshops, conferences, webinars, and social media.
RDI is committed to pursuing five strategic research directions in order to respond to rural trends, challenges and opportunities as well as the needs of various stakeholders and the necessity to sustain a viable organization. The five directions are rural immigration, regional economic development, governance and capacity building, rural infrastructure and services, and rural innovation and are built on both past and current research initiatives which also incorporate emerging research needs and contribute both directly and indirectly to BU's strategic plan, academic plan, and research plan.