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Category Archives: R&D Policy
A politician, a senior bureaucrat, and a blog
Bonjour Dr. Ghoussoub. I very much enjoy your blog… as a science policy junkie I find it a useful antidote to the meanderings of the so-called science and innovation policies in Ottawa and elsewhere … perhaps you already saw this … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
Tagged AAAS, Helene LeBlanc, new democratic party, R&D, Science and Technology, Science policy
3 Comments
Was NSERC there?
“Was NSERC listening?” That was a reaction from the Twitter world to yesterday’s plenary address by Mike Lazaridis to the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Indeed, Lazaridis rocked the casbah yesterday with his speech on the “Power of … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
Tagged AAAS, Basic research, commons standing committee, Jenkins report, mike lazaridis, NSERC, Perimeter Institute
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The Physicists debate “the changing role of NSERC’s Discovery program”
First, came the editorial of University of Ottawa Physicist, Béla Joós in last July’s issue of “Physics in Canada”. There, he zeroed in on the heart of the matter, which if you think about it, is mind boggling: “Over the last … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
Tagged discovery grants, NSERC, Physics, selection committees, suzanne fortier
3 Comments
When University Presidents send out “few public bouquets” to Government
“Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom”– Michel de Montaigne. “Sometimes Canada Gets it Right” is a recent joint op-ed by U. of Toronto President, David Naylor and UBC President, Stephen Toope. … Continue reading
Posted in Board of Governors, Op-eds, R&D Policy
Tagged Banting, CERC, KIP, Lazaridis, Naylor, Perimeter Institute, Toope, Tri-council, Vanier
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Leshner and Toope didn’t get all of it right!
On the occasion of an upcoming meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Stephen Toope, the President of UBC and Alan Leshner, CEO of the AAAS, co-wrote an op-ed for the Vancouver Sun entitled, “Innovation, international collaboration … Continue reading
“The council should be restructured with an unfaltering focus on scientific excellence, or be replaced”
… And the government should then appoint Mike Lazaridis to lead it, I may add. But first he has to be appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire! You guessed it. This is not the kind of talk that … Continue reading
It may be crunch time for the Presidents of Canada’s Research Councils
The government will continue to make “key investments in science and technology” that are necessary to sustain a “modern competitive economy,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Davos today. He then added, “but we believe that Canada’s less-than-optimal results for those investments is … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
Tagged cihr, corporate canada, prime minister stephen harper, research pipeline, sshrc, suzanne fortier
4 Comments
The Business Development Bank gets into the “NSERC Act”
“First, I want to reassure you that we did not take this decision lightly. This is a decision that is made by NSERC staff, independent of the peer review process. Every year we reject applications based on mandate ineligibility. This … Continue reading
Grade inflation, instability and uncertainty in Discovery Grant competitions
It is reported that in a still embargoed presentation to the 2011 Canadian Mathematical Society meeting in Edmonton, NSERC’s President, Suzanne Fortier, cited “Grade inflation” as one of the factors for the disastrous collapse of grant levels in mathematics in the 2011 Discovery … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
Tagged canadian mathematical society, grade inflation, suzanne fortier
1 Comment
You are not alone!
Yet, that’s exactly what bureaucrats want you to feel. “You are the only one complaining. You are isolating your community…”. That’s what they said when 336 mathematical scientists, 27 Canada Research Chairs and 35 fellows of the Royal Society of Canada wrote NSERC’s President … Continue reading
Is NSERC’s matchmaking effort leading to too many free one-night stands?
In order to fulfill its new self-imposed mandate as a pro-active matchmaker between academic researchers and industrial outlets, NSERC introduced three years ago a program that essentially picks up the entire tab for a “first date”, albeit blind or not, between … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
5 Comments
Stop wasting researchers’ time
“It might be high time for Statistics Canada to start collecting data and measure the thousands of hours wasted by Canada’s researchers in filling forms and preparing proposals that lead to nowhere.” That’s what I wrote many posts ago in, “The … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
5 Comments
Canada’s granting councils: “Mission drift” and inadequate governance
“The granting councils have played a pivotal role in developing both talent and ideas for Canada’s innovation agenda. Their core raison d’être has been and remains investigator-initiated research of both a basic and applied nature, and each needs to continue … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
3 Comments
The market for free money is infinite
The latest issue of “Contact” announces that only half of the $15-million federal increase to NSERC’s budget is going to the “Discovery Grant” program, even though the number of applicants to that program keeps increasing –from 3300 in 2010, to … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
6 Comments
The Tri-Council and CFI show Flaherty three “key directions to prosperity”
The joint pre-budget submission by NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC and CFI to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance is now public. Entitled, “BUILDING PROSPERITY, Research is building a brighter future for Canadians”, the document is supposed to be the 2012 manifesto of … Continue reading
Posted in R&D Policy
3 Comments
Could this video also be about the rest of us?
Sometime between 2500 BC and 2000 BC, humanity took a giant leap forward, as our ancestors started understanding that numbers were pure abstractions and that one system alone was enough to count everything, i.e., the same number can be applied to … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
7 Comments
R&D expert panel: All eyes are on Naylor!
No wonder Indira Samarasekera had stressed in her submission to the R&D panel, that NSERC should “distinguish its funding of solution-driven research from basic discovery research.” The President of the University of Alberta must know a thing or two about the fate … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
1 Comment
Much to learn from the chemists … of the UK
“… the attitude that professional administrators with little scientific knowledge can arbitrarily decide the fate of UK science is arrogant, contemptuous of the scientific community and just wrong.” A storm is indeed brewing in the scientific circles of the UK against … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
1 Comment
“CREATE”, Command and Control
NSERC Communications replied to our guest blogger Karel Casteels, about his post regarding the dwindling numbers of graduate and postgraduate fellowships (CGS and PGS and PDFs). Cutting through the maze of budgetary reporting, the key to the story lies in the following NSERC statement: … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
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Karel Casteels: NSERC’s numbers on PDFs don’t add up!
“Apres moi le deluge?”. Not so for Governor General’s Gold Medalist Scholar, Karel Casteels, who was the one who alerted us to the dramatic drop in NSERC’s graduate and postgraduate fellowships. He wrote then: “I recently finished my own PhD. I … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, R&D Policy
4 Comments
Piece of Mind 