Theme 1: Science and Policy
Topics:
- COVID related:
- Hindsight 2020: Retrospective analysis of responses to the pandemic – barriers broken, and lessons learned
- The UN research roadmap for the COVID-19 recovery – Canada’s next steps
- Engaging the R&D community going forward
- Public health surveillance, foresight, and intelligence
- STI Policy frameworks
- Towards holistic STI policies: Approaches that are inclusive of governments, agencies, private sector, academe
- Beyond the Endless Frontier; Renegotiating the Social Contract between Science, Innovation, and Society
- The international research ecosystem/supply chain – opportunities and risks
- Policy and regulation of emerging technologies
- Government STI structures and policies
- Federal-provincial/territorial alignment and coordination
- Structures for STI advice – e.g., moving from ad hoc panels to permanent advisory bodies
- Rethinking the competitive funding model – where it works and where it does not
- Governance and life cycle planning of major research infrastructure/facilities
- Indigenous knowledge
- Integration in evidence-informed decision making
- Climate change
- Carbon management goals: Issues and approaches for agriculture, forestry, food production, manufacturing, and land use
- Agriculture: Production, sustainability, and life cycle; precision agriculture
- Biodiversity and conservation
- Indigenous communities’ engagement in managing and adapting to climate change
- Smart cities and smart infrastructure
- Health
- Regulation and evaluation of public health decisions
- Digital health
- Evidence Based Decision Making in Post Covid Era
Theme 2: Science and Society
Topics:
- Inclusion
- The key to Building Forward Better
- Overcoming systemic racism
- Post pandemic
- Dealing with social and health inequities amplified during the pandemic
- Changing nature of work and cooperation
- Public engagement
- Responses to the science of COVID-19 – lessons learned
- Misinformation/Disinformation
- Public trust in science, especially in the post pandemic world
- Open Science
- Towards a multi-sectoral Open Science strategy for Canada
- Implementing Open Science policies: Issues and considerations
- Open Data: Opportunities and risks
- Digital media
- Democracy and politics in a ‘post-trust’ / ‘post-truth’ / post-pandemic era
- Science and Post Pandemic Politics, Platforms and Elections
Theme 3: Science, Innovation and Economic Development
Topics:
- R&D/Innovation Ecosystem Restructuring
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- Canada’s declining R&D/Innovation performance: New ideas to restructure and refund to better meet public needs and ensure Canada’s competitiveness.
- Towards holistic STI policies: New approaches that “integrate” the capabilities of governments, agencies, academia, and the business sector to meet public needs
- Mission-driven STI policies: Missions, moonshots and middle-power magic
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- Self sufficiency vs. global supply chain
- COVID related
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- R&D/Innovation to meet the challenges of economic recovery in a post-pandemic world
- Strengthening Canada’s biomanufacturing capacity
- International
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- Best Global practices in commercializing new knowledge from scientific research
- Priority Sectors/Challenges
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- Sustainable development and the circular resource economy
- What should be Canada’s competitive priority: Technology innovation or technology adoption?
- Assessing the impact of Disruptive Technologies on Canada’s Job Growth and Economic Development
Theme 4: Science and International Affairs and Security
Topics:
- Whither Globalization
- De-globalization and STI
- Trade post pandemic
- Science diplomacy in post pandemic era
- International collaboration
- For COVID-19 recovery
- Securing research: Protection of Canadian research; non-state espionage
- Cyber and data security
- Global competition / collaboration in space: Science, rules, and regulations
- International STI developments: Implications for Canada
- American Science Policy
- Horizon Europe
- International science and technology agreements
- Social Media, international regulations, and citizen rights
- International knowledge and talent strategy, brain circulation
- Science and Technology in an increasingly tense global order
Theme 5: Science and the Next Generation
Topics:
- The Talent pipelines
- Funding, training, and methods of career support for ECRs
- Diverse career paths to success
- Reskilling and upskilling top be a leading nation
- Increasing and measuring EDI
- Trainees and challenges of post pandemic work
- New graduates and new realities
- Capacity building
- The next generation of Indigenous leaders
- The next generation of innovative tech leaders, e.g. space, AI, cybersecurity cleantech
- Indigenous led research by Indigenous for Indigenous
Theme 6: Grand Challenges
Topics:
- Pandemics and global crises
- Preparing for future pandemics and states of emergency
- Lessons from comparative analysis, national and international responses to the pandemic
- Global inequities in management, e.g., vaccine availability
- Canada’s energy policies for a sustainable future
- Food security
- Climate change
- Climate Adaptation
- Next steps to Net Zero
- Water scarcity and quality
- Oceans and sea rise
- Advancing UN Sustainable Development Goals
- One Health: Collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach and working at the local, regional, national, and global levels, recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. (adopted from CDC website).
