Field stations and other facilities

Field stations and other facilities

The reach of the University of Calgary extends across southern Alberta and beyond. Students and scholars – and the community at large – have access to a unique collection of facilities located in some of the most stunning landscapes on the planet. 

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McMahon Stadium and Olympic Volunteer Centre

McMahon Stadium is the fifth-largest stadium in Canada and home of the University of Calgary Dinos football team (as well as the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League). Owned by the University of Calgary and operated by the McMahon Stadium Society, it has permanent seating totaling 35,650. Located south of the university's Main Campus between Crowchild Trail and University Drive, the stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1988 Winter Olympics – the torch and Olympic rings are still present in the northeast corner of the facility. On the north end of the stadium, the legacy Olympic Volunteer Centre (OVC) facility houses offices as well as the Red & White Club, a bookable event space that overlooks the football field.


RAO

Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (RAO)

The Rothney Astrophysical Observatory is one of the principal research facilities within the University of Calgary’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. As one of Canada’s best-equipped astronomical teaching facilities, the RAO provides university students with the opportunity to use research-grade telescopes, an integral part of the undergraduate astronomy curriculum. It also serves the community as a resource to science educators and as a catalyst for science education in Alberta. More than 8,000 members of the general public connect with the universe each year through public events and open houses.


W.A. Ranches

W.A. Ranches is a 19,000-acre cattle ranch operation northeast of Cochrane, Alberta that was donated to the University of Calgary in 2018. The ranch will become a world-class teaching, learning and research facility, as well as a real-life training facility for veterinary medicine students.

W.A. Ranches

Innovation Park

University Research Park

University Research Park is a partnership between the university, the City of Calgary, and the Province of Alberta. Its research and incubation space is intended to encourage innovation and facilitate the commercialization and transfer of new technology and research. The park occupies approximately 34 hectares and is located immediately to the north of the main campus in the area between Crowchild Trail NW, 32nd Avenue NW, and 33rd Street NW. 


Barrier Lake Field Station

Kananaskis Field Stations

The University of Calgary operates two world-class ecological research stations in Kananaskis Country, in the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The Barrier Lake Station, built in 1967, is located in the Kananakis Valley, 80 kilometres west of Calgary. The R.B. Miller Station, founded in 1950, is located in the Sheep River Provincial Park, 110 kilometres southwest of Calgary. Dozens of research programs conducted there address everything from the lifecycle of bark beetles, animal nutrition, plant reproduction and pollinator behaviour to climate warming, forest evolution, and stressors on mountain lakes. The more remote R.B. Miller Field Station is favoured by animal behaviour researchers for its isolated location and proximity to large animal populations. Many long-term studies have been conducted there over decades on Columbian ground squirrels, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, pikas, trout, songbirds and grouse.


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Kluane Lake Research Station

Kluane Lake Research Station is located 220 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse, Yukon, on the south shore of Kluane Lake. It's one of the most valued, celebrated, and well-used highlights of the Arctic Institute of North America (housed at the University of Calgary). The extreme elevation difference between Kluane Lake and the crest of the St. Elias Mountains establishes a strong gradient in environmental attributes and results in a remarkable diversity of research opportunities within a small geographical area. Since 1961, when the base was founded, it has fostered research projects spanning the disciplines of glaciology, geomorphology, geology, biology, botany, zoology, hydrology, limnology, climatology, high-altitude physiology, anthropology and archaeology.


Bamfield Marine Science Centre

Bamfield Marine Science Centre

The Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre is UCalgary’s oceanside station on the west coast of Vancouver Island. BMSC is a world-class teaching and research facility offering a wide variety of specialized upper-level courses, small classes, hands-on experience, condensed summer courses, and a full fall program.


Faculty of Social Work Regional Centres

UCalgary's Faculty of Social Work is the largest school of social work in Canada, offering flexible graduate and undergraduate education to students across Alberta through three campus locations. In addition to the Calgary site on the university's main campus, social work programming is offered through two additional regional sites in Alberta: one in Central and Northern Alberta (based in Edmonton) and the other in Southern Alberta (based in Lethbridge).

Faculty of Social Work Regional Centres

Family Medicine Teaching Centres

Family Medicine Teaching Centres

The Cumming School of Medicine and Alberta Health Services jointly operate three teaching centres across Calgary. The centres are staffed by fully trained family doctors and are a teaching venue for family medicine residents (recently graduated physicians).The teaching centres offer Calgarians access to family doctors who provide as up-to-date and comprehensive primary care. They effectively provide hands-on learning experiences for our future doctors while helping to serve Albertans with their primary healthcare needs.


University District

University District

Taking shape on the lands immediately adjacent to the university’s Main Campus,  University District is a comprehensive, 200-acre master-planned community that combines residential, retail and office spaces. The community will offer diverse housing and office space, retail facilities, outdoor space, and community amenities. As it is built out over the coming years, the community will be an enviable, globally relevant neighbourhood that fosters healthy and active lifestyles, builds on the character and strengths of the surrounding neighbourhoods, and supports a conscious urban culture.