Organization: National Research Council

‘Reimagining’ National Academies: A Northern Minerva Reboots

‘Reimagination’ is very much in the news today (not to be confused with the imagineers at Walt Disney Imagineering R&D subsidiary). We saw the word trotted out in the 2018 federal Budget on how the 101-year-old National Research Council (NRC) was going to form a new conception of itself — not that it hasn’t been reimagined several times before.

Editorial 32-2

The Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI) competition for the Liberal government’s most expensive funding program to date has wrapped up after nine months.

Federal innovation support programs focus of ground breaking Treasury Board inventory

Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) has completed a comprehensive inventory of federal programs aimed at supporting business innovation and clean technology. The inventory captured 20 organizations and 92 program streams (business-facing programs), with the top five accounting for more than two-thirds of the $2.379 billion total.

Canada, Germany to expand cooperation in more research areas

The National Research Council (NRC) has forged an agreement with German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt or DLR) to further collaboration on aeronautics research and other research interests in the future. Rolf Henke, DLR executive board member responsible for aeronautics research, and Iain Stewart, NRC president, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on…

Strategic direction and a re-balancing of research types essential for improving Canada’s innovation performance – McDougall

Canada must re-balance public investments that currently overemphasize fundamental research and provide high-level direction to increase the uptake and application of innovation, including offering experiential learning and professional development for key players in the innovation ecosystem, says a former president of the National Research Council (NRC).

Supercluster contenders must include strategies for confronting the risks in managing diverse interests

Managing different organizations with varying interests and different sizes of financial commitment will require a change in culture for the companies and institutions engaged in the Innovation Supercluster Initiative (ISI) competition. Governance and managing millions of dollars in government funds matched by industry are among the key challenges and risks ISI contenders will face, according to panelists at the recent Canadian Science Policy Conference

NRC announces sweeping changes as part of Stewart-led renewal strategy

The National Research Council (NRC) will appoint a Chief Science Advisor and establish a President’s Research Excellence Advisory Committee as part of sweeping, comprehensive changes planned over the next four years. In August, the 101-year-old research institution launched several short-term actions as part of a renewal strategy undertaken by NRC president Iain Stewart, stemming from his mandate to assess and reinvigorate the organization and establish its future direction. Those actions will be followed by more initiatives in the medium term (two years) and longer term (four years).