The Centre on Governance has been active in research for several years. Since 1995, the Centre’s researchers have been working on many topics such as cultural policy in Canada and elsewhere, culture and social cohesion, and local cultural policies.

Over the years, the Centre has developed strong ties with the community and developed collaborative projects and occasional associations with many actors in the cultural sector such as the City of Ottawa’s service for culture and leisure, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and the Canadian Coalition for the Arts, to name only a few of these past and occasional partners.

In 2016, Public Administration researchers working on culture regrouped in a thematic network in order to further the potential of the cultural research conducted at the Centre. This initiative seeks to stimulate partnerships, to sustain exchanges and to promote the research on cultural policy that is conducted at the centre.

Current research projects revolve around these themes:​

The members of the Cultural Policy Research Network are currently working on the project entitled:
“Reporting the impacts of culture: artists from Francophone minority communities and the changing landscape of accountability in the cultural sector” funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
 
This partnership research project aims to take into account the evolution of the world of accountability in the cultural sector. In particular, this project seeks to report on strategies to promote the artistic work of Francophone minority organizations and artists to granting organizations.