The Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) recognizes exceptional individuals who have demonstrated sustained excellence and leadership in advancing science and innovation policy in Canada. This award honours individuals whose careers have had a significant, lasting, and meaningful impact on the Canadian science policy landscape, and who have consistently championed and inspired the science and innovation policy community over many years. Each individual may receive the Science Policy Lifetime Achievement Award only once.
Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are nominated and selected by the CSPC Board of Directors.
CSPC welcomes recommendations from individuals and organizations wishing to bring forward the names of candidates whose professional achievements and contributions merit consideration for this distinction. The CSPC is firmly committed to the principles of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and encourages the nomination of individuals from all backgrounds, sectors, and communities.
2026
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Ilse Treurnicht
Impact Investor, Director and Advisor
Ilse Treurnicht’s career spans research, health and cleantech firms, innovation ecosystems, venture capital and public policy. She is an impact investor, former chair of the Public Policy Forum and a director of the Equality Fund. She chaired the Council of Canadian Academies expert panel on the State of Science, Technology and Innovation in Canada (2025), and is an advisor to technology businesses, governments, non-profits and international organizations. Ilse served as CEO of MaRS Discovery District as it developed from a nascent organization into a leading urban innovation hub. She holds a doctorate in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar.
2022 – Lifetime Achievement Award Winner:
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Citizen Advocate on Environmental, Cultural and Human Rights
Sheila Watt-Cloutier has been selected as a result of so many years of exceptional contribution and leadership over the course of her career in bringing Indigenous perspectives and knowledge to national and international policymaking, in particular on environmental health, sustainability and preservation.
She has raised awareness of the threat of climate change in the Arctic and its relationship to human rights and Indigenous rights in Canada, and globally, She has been clearly articulating the interconnectedness of Inuit culture, the environment, the economy, foreign policy, global health, and sustainability. Her work with the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment integrated traditional and western knowledge and evidence, bringing a human face to climate change in the Arctic. She has inspired the science policy community across Canada with her insights, courage, and voice.
