2012 federal budget: “We in Canada have yet to learn, so it seems”

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Ghoussoub

My friend had called from Ottawa right after the budget lock-up to “re-assure me” that the three research councils did OK. The AUCC president, Paul Davidson, had also issued a press release offering praise for “investments (that) will preserve current levels of basic research and scholarships funding”. Most universities websites followed suit in congratulating government. Then came the email, “With NSERC, it is as we feared! They have extracted and diverted substantial funds. See the CIC press release below. The response given on UBC’s website is just wrong on the facts!”  Continue reading →

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What to expect on the R&D front from tomorrow’s “transformational” budget?

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Ghoussoub

Canada’s federal budget is due in less than 24 hours, and so we still have some time to speculate about it. There are four elements to work with and to extrapolate from. First, Harper’s declarations at Davos indicate a will to address some aspects of government funding to R&D programs. Secondly, there seems to be an atmosphere that this is a front where the budget will carry some good news. Thirdly, the recommendations of the Jenkins report have been at the core of all R&D discussions lately. And finally, there is this element of “wishful thinking”, which is highly subjective of course, but nevertheless omnipresent in any process involving guesses and predictions. So, off we go. Continue reading →

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We have a plan!

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Ghoussoub

A UBC Housing Action Plan that is, which –I believe– will help improve housing choice and affordability for faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students on the Vancouver campus. Actually, it is still only a discussion paper waiting for your input, before it goes to a final decision by the Board of Governors. We therefore need your help –You present and future UBCers, your children, your parents and your friends– in this final push towards an important milestone in UBC’s relentless march towards the very top of the world’s academic institutions. We invite you to read the Discussion Paper, to learn about the recommended potential housing opportunities and how we developed those options. You may also want to watch the Housing Action Plan video! Continue reading →

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Back to my almost asbestos-free alma mater

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Ghoussoub

I had walked this route so many times over the years, first as a graduate student, then as a frequent visiting researcher. The little bookstore is still there, but I had to resist the urge to buy “Libération”, a daily ritual of my younger years. I had after all already read the morning news on my iphone. I was again making my way to my alma mater, l’Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI). My last visit to its Jussieu location was fourteen years ago, just before the work to remove the asbestos began. Continue reading →

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With the women of the “Laplacian”, who needs diversity tsars?

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Ghoussoub

“Wherever my travels may lead, paradise is where I am.” ~Voltaire

In case you have been wondering why I haven’t been blogging lately, I am presently in Rome having too much fun working, lecturing, and enjoying life with my friends and colleagues at Sapienza Universita’ di Roma, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, and Università Roma Tre. The latter is still waiting for the professionals in communication and marketing to find for it a more sexy name. Talking mathematics with a few of the “women of the Laplacian”, Angela, Filomena, and Gabriella, is always a highlight of my visits here. No offense, Alberto, Massimiliano, Pierpaolo and Italo. Continue reading →

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Everything you wanted to know about GERD, BERD, GovERD and HERD

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Ghoussoub

The UK department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) released its annual science, engineering and technology statistics, including a good deal of data on how much the G7 countries spend on research and development (R&D). Canada is fifth out of seven in the most important overall indicator, the gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD), which consists of the sum of all annual investments on R&D in business, university, government and not-for-profit sectors.  But the picture becomes clearer when the numbers are broken down into the various contributing sectors to R&D. And one of them is surely a shocker. Continue reading →

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Are Canada’s best researchers failing the country’s innovation agenda?

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Ghoussoub

Or is it that the system and current programs are failing to capture their talent and their expertise? Needless to say, both questions assume that “Innovation” is not really having a good ride in Canada, at least compared to other G7 countries, and especially when one considers the cash flow that has been directed towards it from so many government “hoses”. Continue reading →

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With Google’s new privacy policy, who needs Bill C-30?

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Ghoussoub

You cannot say that you haven’t been warned. “We’re changing our privacy policy and terms. This stuff matters.” This is a message that you have been seeing lately on the Google search engine. You have been given a full month notice to read and understand Google’s new privacy policy, which will apply March 1. That’s tomorrow! After that, you will be considered informed and consenting. Continue reading →

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Elsevier’s first concessions to its “enablers”

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Ghoussoub

In October 2001, more than 30,000 scientists signed an open letter in which they pledged to exclusively publish in, review for and serve as editors of journals that placed their contents in the –then newly launched– PubMed Central with no more than a 6 month delay. Publishers did not respond to the call, and the campaign fizzled away as very few followed through on their pledge. Things seem to be different this time around. The Gowers initiated petition to boycott Elsevier has barely reached the 7000 signatures, yet the publisher is multiplying its efforts “to make up” with its constituency. Continue reading →

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A politician, a senior bureaucrat, and a blog

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Ghoussoub

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 speech given its subject (by Australian minister of tertiary education, skills, science and research, Chris Evans), but hard to imagine someone here giving such a talk. Continue reading →

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Was NSERC there?

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Ghoussoub

“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 Ideas”. “We need research that tackles big questions, not just research that looks at commercial gains”, he thundered to a packed audience of thousands gathered in Vancouver for the meeting of the AAAS. “The ideas that seem to have no implication at all are the ones that we need to be truly excited about.”  Contrast this with … Continue reading →

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The Physicists debate “the changing role of NSERC’s Discovery program”

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Ghoussoub

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 two years, the Discovery Grant Program (DGP) has been changing, not only the way in which grants are allocated but also in its mission statement.” How could this cataclysmic shift happen under the very nose of Canada’s scientific community and who is responsible for it? In his extremely lucid editorial (the best analysis I’ve seen so far on the issue), he declares, “it is time to rise to the defence of the DGP.” Today, the following open letter to NSERC’s President Suzanne Fortier, by a group of prominent physicists and astronomers, also appeared in the journal “Physics in Canada”. Most of the signatories are past chairs of Grant selection committees, and all are well versed in the complexities of grant selection procedures in Canada and elsewhere. When a “system produces a decline in both fairness and trust”, all decent and serious scientists in the country feel it simultaneously. You are not alone!

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When University Presidents send out “few public bouquets” to Government

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Ghoussoub

“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. They were “sending out a few public bouquets” to the federal government in gratitude for the $1.3-billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP) initiated in the 2009 stimulus budget. Last year, U. of Alberta’s President, Indira Samarasekera, threw a party in Ottawa to celebrate the federal government’s investment of $190-million dollars in the Canada Excellence Research Chair Program (CERC). In a recent op-ed for the Vancouver Sun, Alan Leshner and Stephen Toope pointed at the Perimeter Institute –a recent recipient of another $50-million from the federal government—as a “Canadian example of international research”. Continue reading →

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Leshner and Toope didn’t get all of it right!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Ghoussoub

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 go hand in hand”. They were using the occasion to single out recent “Canadian examples of international research.” And on this front, they didn’t get all of it right! Continue reading →

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Reed Elsevier stock price is dropping but …

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Ghoussoub

“Noise around the boycott against Elsevier offers short term trading opportunity”. That’s from the investment firm Exane Paribas, which “fully expects the price to rebound once this boycott fails like all the previous ones”.  Indeed, even though more than 4900 scientists have already signed the petition initiated by Gowers to boycott all Elsevier’s publications, the numbers look relatively small when you consider that the movement is international and that it is trying to involve all scientific disciplines. Just take a look at the timid participation of Canada’s mathematical community to see the challenges ahead in facing up to the lousy business practices in scientific publishing. But are we reaching a tipping point, where the career benefits of publishing with Elsevier may now need to be balanced with certain risks? Continue reading →

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They also owned the podium for Canada

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Ghoussoub

… away from your cameras and without your millions. “We were very grateful to have our summer training for the Canadian International Math Olympiad (IMO) team at the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) again this year. As in previous years, the hospitality and assistance were exceptional…” That was Dalhousie’s Associate Professor, Dorette Pronk, who was the leader of Canada’s team for the 52d International Math Olympiad held in Amsterdam. The national team: Six of Canada’s brightest high school students. The results: Each one of them was invited on stage to receive a medal. Medal count: 1 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze medals. Age of Canada’s gold medalist: 14. Political, corporate and media interest: Nil. Continue reading →

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“I am unable to accept your refusal”

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Ghoussoub


And once your rejection of the rejection is not rejected, prepare to reject the way you’re expected to spend your time. Continue reading →

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“The council should be restructured with an unfaltering focus on scientific excellence, or be replaced”

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Ghoussoub

… 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 you would hear in Canada. The title of this post originated in the UK, where the scientific community is up in arms against the new ways of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the principal source of funding for the physical sciences and mathematics. Other things are also different in the UK. Major media outlets there, such as The Guardian, The Telegraph and The BBC do care about what the descendants of Newton, Faraday, and Lord Kelvin have to say. Not in Canada. Continue reading →

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A close encounter of the classy kind with Preston Manning

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Ghoussoub

The place: The Doug Mitchell Hockey arena at UBC. The occasion: The University of Alberta Bears vs. the UBC Thunderbirds. Why? It’s great hockey and for a fraction of the price of Canucks tickets. The instigators: Ed and Karen Perkins, my friends of 33 years who took my wife and I on the most cost-effective and enjoyable date possible these days: Dinner at White Spot at 5:30 (brutal for my late dinner  with wine habits) and then the game at UBC at 7:00 o’clock. Isn’t it Preston Manning who is sitting there, said “Uncle Ed”? (That’s what my kids call him).  Yes, he is. Should we go say hello? But what do we say? “Thanks for your contributions to the country”, Ed replied. So, off we go. Continue reading →

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It may be crunch time for the Presidents of Canada’s Research Councils

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Ghoussoub

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 a significant problem for our country.” It sounds like shake-up time for Canadian government support for R&D. I say that it is also an opportunity for the leadership of Canada’s research councils to shine! Continue reading →

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