[CivicAccess-discuss] Science and Technology Policy in Canada - ?

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

It would be great to discuss Canada's Science and Technology Policy a bit!
The star spangled banner flashes brightly into our eyes and sometimes blinds
us to the situation at home!  They sure are fancy in the south, but what we
do here govern's us! But I agree we can leverage the good stuff from the
south and infuse our dreams with potential.

Canada does not have a National Science Foundation.  We DO have 2 research
arms, one called Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Committee (NSERC).  While
there is some logic to having them thematically seperate, the logic of SSHRC
informing science and research policy with NSERC I think overules thematic
research differences.  Both are primarily funding agencies and neither of
these organizations have a specific science and technology policy for the
Nation.  We DO have the National Research Centre (NRC), it however is more
and more going the direction of industry led/supported research according to
a friend of mine who works there at the expense of more socially or
environmentally relevant or public beneficial research.  They have some
incredible scientists working for them but they to do not really have the
mandate of public policy on science or technology.  We used to have a
national science advisor (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Advisor_(Canada)) who was at
some distance from the Government but that position was made redundant by
the Harper Government.  Albeit, I do wonder how one person can fulfill that
role alone.

But alas! Canada does not have a science and technology policy but there is
reference to this document Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's
Advantage — 2007 (http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ic1.nsf/en/h_00856e.html)
but I have no idea how well received or implemented this document is. It is
again very industry centric and not necessarily Canadian society centric.
It does seem to have a roadmap (
http://www.stic-csti.ca/epic/site/stic-csti.nsf/en/h_00010e.html).
Membership names are below this press release (
http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ic1.nsf/en/02069e.html).  I do not know these
people but maybe some of you do!

Until we have a type of funded organization that is somewhat arms length
from government we will probably have very little in terms of an integrated
science, technology or data access/management/preservation strategy.  We
need an org that is not just a funding agency that can only more or less
track & share the research it funds and that does not just answer industry
concerns.  We need one with teeth, mulah and brains!

Here is an excerpt of the Brief I submitted to the House of Commons Standing
Committee on Industry, Science and Technology Committees Directorate that is
again more industry centric, that explains the stuff a bit more. (
http://serendipityoucity.blogsome.com/brief-submission-indu-study-on-canadian-science-and-technology/
)

*The creation of a Society, Science and Technology Foundation for Canada
analogous to the US National Science Foundation (NSF).*

   - *Rational:* Currently in Canada we have NSERC whose focus is to fund
   research related to the creation of science and engineering products but
   does not provide S&T research direction. There is SSHRC which funds social
   science research but rarely funds research that is at the intersection of
   science, technology and society. The SSHRC now expired *Innovation on the
   New Economy* thrust was the exception. There is the National Research
   Council (NRC) which does Canadian science, and there is Natural Resources
   Canada which pursues the issue driven science of the 'New' government,
   Environment Canada and Health Canada and a number of regulatory
   organizations who do science, but there is no institution that investigates
   big science issues in Canada, that can bring cross disciplinary teams of
   scientists together on important issues, that can call upon the government
   agencies that do science to collaborate on specific projects or that can
   bridge private, academic, government and civil society expertise on
   particular science and technology directions.  There are also some quasi
   independent organizations such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
   but it does not do research. And there are a few provincial R&D institutions
   however none of these are coordinated at a national scale.  Canada does not
   have an organization for non science and technology producing agencies to
   defer to if assistance is required on big national scale technology
   projects, and so these rely and fund large consulting firm to direct
   technology projects instead –this is not a good scenario but it is a typical
   one.  The NSF in the US has the resources and authority to mobilize
   scientists, specialists, engineers and experts on myriad critical science
   issues and to fund big and small projects alike, it could benefit from more
   public consultation processes as discussed above.  The NSF free online
   publications are stupendous and are the result of working groups comprising
   top US thinkers assembled to focus on one or two key issues, visions or
   problem areas.  The current US Cyberinfrastructure project, Super Computing
   Centres, GRID computing, and distributed repository systems for data
   storage, and transdisplinary R&S&D are the result of NSF research.  As a
   Canadian I would like to have a Canadian more consultative version of an NSF
   as our current ad hoc un-coordinated system fails us as a Nation.  We work
   to meet local, particular and often immediate needs but do not build or
   think collectively as a nation on society, science and technology at the
   moment.


Where do we go from here?  Maybe some of us should read the Councils docs,
and see what is in there.  Although who knows if this still sticks after the
recent elections.  Different provinces also have strategies, might be good
to look at those too.  We would also have to assess the partisanship of the
members. Some of the professional and academic research chairs look
impressive, I wonder how the social aspect of technology or technological
implications or ethics make it to the table if there are no experts from
those areas.  We know some people are working on the procurement side of
government and are pushing for more open source, but who knows about open
access!

I have been annoyed by myself and a bunch of other stuff this week so if the
tone is off please forgive me for I am suffering from much foot in mouth
disease this week.
-- 
Tracey P. Lauriault
https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
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