Organization: Council of Canadian Academies

Excerpts: Research ecosystem reacts to Budget 2018

The whole ecosystem is patting themselves on the back, confident that their concerted efforts to lobby behind the Naylor report recommendations — foremost of which was an increase in budget – did not fall on deaf ears. RE$EARCH MONEY offers excerpts of what the ecosystem has to say about the federal budget.

CCA names five to Scientific Advisory Committee

The Council of Canadian Academies has appointed David Castle, Sophie D’Amours, Malcolm King, Barbara Neis and Nicole Poirier to its scientific advisory committee. The committee advises the CCA’s board of directors on expert assessments, particularly on question selection and expert panel membership. Castle is VP research, and a professor in the School of Public Administration,…

Time to act on Canada’s stem cell science competitive advantage

Throughout the world, countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan are striving to become world leaders in this promising new area. Canada has an incalculable advantage — we are already there. We have been leaders since James Till and Ernest McCulloch discovered stem cells more than 50 years ago. Canada’s foundational research in stem cell biology has underpinned all subsequent work on clinical applications in regenerative medicine, stem cell-related drug discovery, and cell and tissue engineering. Stem cell science is, truly, Canada’s science.

Big gains possible with explicit provincial science policies: CCA report

Provinces that develop and deploy explicit science policies benefit from greater coordination, alignment and clarity of their science-based activities, which in turn help leverage federal support. Other than Quebec and the territories which have developed explicit science policies, those of Canada’s other subnational governments are implicit in nature and often conflate science and innovation resulting in less than optimum outcomes, according to a new report from the Council of Canadian Academies.

Canada lacks the institutional structure to invest in the future

Budget 2017 promises $125 million to launch what it calls a Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy by promoting collaboration between centres of excellence in Montreal, Toronto-Waterloo and Edmonton. This, it says, will “position Canada as a world-leading destination for companies seeking to invest in artificial intelligence and innovation.” What’s missing as Canada seeks to position itself for the future, and this is critically important, is any institutional capacity to prepare Canadians more broadly for the future.

Canada’s regenerative medicine sector poised to soar with better funding and collaboration: report

Canadian expertise and achievements in regenerative medicine (RM) could be at a turning point if strategic steps are taken to increase stable funding and achieve greater coordination among the many federal and provincial players. Those are the key observations of a report issued by the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), which was based on a two-day workshop held last October to provide policy makers with pointers for growing the sector and realizing greater economic and health benefits.

CCA launches follow-up panel on S&T, industrial R&D

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) is launching a new expert panel assessment to examine Canadian S&T and industrial R&D, building upon a series of seminal reports it issued between 2006 and 2013. It will be released in two parts, with an interim report that will feed into the government’s Innovation Agenda and a final…

Council re-launches internship program

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has re-launched its Graduate Internship Program. Successful students will participate in the CCA’s expert panel process, work at the interface of science and policy and conduct research under the guidance of a program director. Internships are full-time and last six months, with sessions beginning in July and January. FMI,…

CCA releases report on business and energy prices

The Council of Canadian Academies has released an expert panel report that explores the risks and opportunities posed by higher energy prices. The report — requested by Industry Canada — provides an overview of how businesses have adapted to rising and increasingly volatile energy prices and examines ways in which they can enhance their resilience.…

CCA to examine energy use and climate change

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has announced a new expert panel assessment of Energy Use and Climate Change: A Synthesis of the Latest Evidence. The work is sponsored by Magna International Inc, Aurora ON, the first time a CCA expert panel has been commissioned by a corporation. The panel, whose members are currently being…