Canadian Science Policy Centre
1595 16th Avenue, Suite 301
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 3N9
E-mail:
info@sciencepolicy.ca
Canadian Science Policy Centre
1595 16th Avenue, Suite 301
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 3N9
E-mail:
info@sciencepolicy.ca
Subscribe to the Canadian Science Policy Conference newsletter to keep up-to-date with the latest news, events and programs.
Innovation Policy focuses on putting the outputs of research (knowledge, technology) into use for broad socio-economic benefits. Innovation policies generally support and promote technology transfer, product, process development, validation, commercialization and scale up, national and regional innovation systems with the objective of improving productivity and competitiveness and driving economic growth and job creation. Social innovation is considered as an integral part of innovation policy. CSPC encourages nominations from all disciplines of science (natural sciences and engineering, social and human sciences, and health sciences) and from all sectors (governments at all levels, academia, private and non-profit sectors, media, and others).
The Science for Policy Award recognizes an individual who has distinguished themselves via the application and use of scientific research and knowledge to inform evidence-based decisions for public policy and regulations.
The Policy for Science Award recognizes an individual who has pioneered policies and practices to improve the development of new technologies, capacity building and research infrastructure.
Science Policy is inclusive of both policy for science and science for policy. Policy for Science focuses on management of science enterprises, i.e., the generation of new knowledge, the development of new technology, capacity building, training highly qualified personnel and research infrastructure. In general, the key targets of policy for science are post-secondary institutions, research funding organizations and government science-based departments and agencies. Science for policy is the application and use of scientific research and knowledge to inform evidence-based decisions for public policy and regulations in all policy areas, not limited to but including public-interest policy priorities such as health, environment, national security, education, and criminal justice and others.
Organized by: Laboratories Canada
Moderator: Ms. Natalka Cmoc
Speakers: Dr. Claire Samson, Ms. Alexandra-Gwyn Paetz, Mr. Peter Wenzel-Constabel, Dr. Danika Goosney, Dr. Fred Wrona
Science undertaken in Germany is often described as excellent and innovative, enjoying an outstanding reputation around the world. It is one of the world’s leader, especially in emerging and disruptive areas that drives socio-economic benefits. Its success relies on the superb research infrastructure, research networks and broad-based science activities.
This panel will focus on German best practices across themes that could be adapted and developed in Canada: (1) encouraging thoughtful competition that rewards collaboration and partnerships, (2) breaking down jurisdictional barriers to co-fund infrastructure (article 91B), (3) piloting mergers between federal and academic science that include strategic partnerships with Canada.
Organized by: uOttawa’s Institute for Science, Society & Policy
Moderator: Maxime Lê
Speakers: Paalini Sathiyaseelan, Denise Amyot, Rhonda Moore, Dr. Monica Gattinger, Chelsie Johnson
Canada’s science-policy community has started taking action to advance equity, diversity, and inclusiveness (EDI) in research, training, and policy. In this session seasoned and emergent leaders discuss the current state of play on EDI in Canada’s science policy community: What have we learnt so far? What worked, what did not? How can we address the challenges ahead?
Co-organized by uOttawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy, the Institute on Governance, and Science & Policy Exchange, this session will foster a collective learning process on EDI by identifying gaps between EDI ambitions and implementation and ideas how to close them.
Today, one in four Canadian adults demonstrate symptoms of depression, anxiety or PTSD, up from one in five in 2020. In Canada, an average of more than 10 people die by suicide a day. 1.2M children are affected by mental illness, with suicide being the second leading cause of death; an issue that is particularly acute among Indigenous communities. The panel on mental health research and innovation will bring together leading experts and decision makers in an interactive discussion on the state of mental health research funding and emerging trends to improve outcomes for people living with mental illness.
Organized by: Ontario Brain Institute
Speakers: Brendan Behan, Nikki Porter, Parisa Sabetian, Shelly Philip LaForest, Stelios Georgiades
Integration by design: Empowering the research-commercialization-care continuum to address health challenges by enabling collaborative discovery and partnership.
Identifying solutions to address today’s brain health challenges requires integration across the research, commercialization, and care continuum. However, diversity in thought, time-to action, approaches, and priorities exists across these sectors. The Ontario Brain Institute and their industry, research, not-for-profit, and patient partners weigh in on the functionality, value, and barriers to interdisciplinary partnerships, with a focus on the essential elements for health research partnerships: people and data. They will share their insights and identify the roles and services needed from intermediaries to successfully create and sustain an effective cross-sector network. By enabling cross-sector partnerships, discovery, innovation, and patient care can improve.
Organized by: Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy, Baycrest
Moderator: Rosanne Aleong
Speakers: Dr. Saskia Sivananthan, Eliav Shaked, Dr. Jane Rylett, Jim Mann, Nicole D. Anderson
The Alzheimer Society of Canada’s Landmark Study highlights that 1.7 million Canadians could be living with dementia by 2050, barring significant interventions. We will begin with rapid-fire presentations of our approaches to implementation of the first objective of the National Dementia Strategy – Prevent Dementia, followed by breakout sessions on: 1) community-based and online solutions to risk reduction; 2) accessing Canada’s diversity in the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy; 3) supporting current and next generations of researchers; 4) making early detection accessible in primary care; and, 5) breaking the stigma of dementia. Discussions will be incorporated into a white paper.
Organized by: The Royal Society of Canada / University of Ottawa
Moderator: Kimberlyn McGrail
Speakers: Bartha Maria Knoppers, Doug Manuel, Dr. Steven J Hoffman, Dr. Michael C. Wolfson
The pandemic revealed significant problems in Canada; critically, one is health data. We are in the midst of an explosion in the generation and application of digital data. These data can support real-time clinical decision-making, as well as the development and evaluation of health technologies and health system interventions. This panel will present examples and discuss the potentials for health data and learning health systems to improve health and address health inequities. We will identify barriers, which are not primarily technological, and the major changes needed, especially in governance, approaches to privacy, public and stakeholder engagement, and federal-provincial relations.
Organized by: Roche
Moderator: Alexandre Le Bouthillier
Speakers: Fanny Sie, Dr. Benjamin Haibe-Kains, Dr. Ross Mitchell, Laurent Tillement
Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be a major driver in innovative progress for various sectors including healthcare. The ongoing development of AI and adoption in healthcare practices has and continues to highlight some challenges from the lens of ethical deliberation, legal risk and societal gains.
Back in 2018, Université de Montréal was one of the first to develop a declaration for Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence signed by various individuals, and sectors, who collectively agreed with the need to identify principles and values in the field of digital technology and AI.
This session will engage in discussion around the principles and recommendations of the Montreal Declaration. Have we implemented the declaration the way that it was meant to be? Are we still focused on risks? Has open science moved forward since 2018?
Organized by: Belmont Forum
Moderator: Dr. Nicole Arbour
Speakers: Marlene Lynda Poitras, Jean-Marc Mangin, Anna Stewart-Ibarra, Javier Gracia-Garza
Organized by: Office of Energy Research and Development, Natural Resources Canada
Moderator: Amanda Wilson
Speakers: Martin Rovers, Katherine Sparkes, Dr. Bronwyn Lazowski
Mission-oriented innovation is a mechanism to facilitate coordination of many actors and limited resources to achieve ambitious goals. The theory is relatively understood, the practice is more difficult, especially in a context such as Canada’s energy sector. This panel will discuss the complex issue of transforming Canada’s electricity systems to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and how the federal government can enable mission-oriented innovation to accelerate that transformation. NRCan’s Office of Energy R&D will present its Innovation Systems Analysis Tool and Innovation & Electricity Regulation Initiative developed to facilitate a mission-oriented approach. Panelists will respond with their perspectives transitioning to a mission-oriented approach within the electricity sector.
Organized by: Laboratories Canada
Moderator: Mr. Paul Thompson
Speakers: Dr. Dominika Dolzycka, Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte, Francis Bilodeau
Our most complex societal challenges require creative solutions that bring together multiple perspectives. The role of science along with the assumptions held about how knowledge is produced and used is changing. In this shift toward transdisciplinary collaboration, federal governments have a role in enabling the sharing of ideas and resources across different disciplines and partnerships, including the design and use of infrastructure.
Representatives from Canada and Germany will discuss how shared science infrastructure can support the transdisciplinary collaborations needed to solve current and future global challenges, consequently enhancing the training of the next generation of scientific leaders and building public trust.
Organized by: BioCanRx
Moderator: Karimah Es Sabar
Speakers: Elizabeth Nanak, Stéphanie Michaud, Bill Borland, Diana Royce
Mission-oriented research and innovation serve the idea that societies should leverage research and innovation activities to achieve clear, ambitious goals. Activities can span different stages of the innovation cycle from research to market deployment and cut across various policy fields, sectors and disciplines. Although slated for termination in 2024, the Network Centres of Excellence (NCE) program’s rich history, program structure, successes and failures should be used to inform and efficiently implement future mission-oriented research and innovation program design. The panellists will provide examples of NCE program successes and failures through funding renewal and early termination from their own experiences with this program.
Organized by: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
Moderator: Dr. Cara Tannenbaum
Speakers: Duncan Retson, Dr. Shannon Quinn, Dr. Jeffrey Griffin, Guy Levesque
Research has increasingly become collaborative, a trend motivated by many factors, including the effectiveness of interdisciplinary science, the efficiency of shared infrastructure and equipment, and a stronger emphasis on challenge driven research to generate socio-economic impacts. The pandemic has underscored the importance of collaboration and has demonstrated that the research ecosystem is nimble and can achieve great things quickly when researchers work together to advance common goals. With accessible resources and strong leadership, our expectations of what is possible through collaboration has never been higher. This panel brings together individuals from a range of federal departments and laboratories, as well as from the academic community, to answer key questions about where federal/academic research collaboration can take us, and how we will get there.
Organized by: Canadian Science Publishing
Moderator: Dr. Michael Donaldson
Speakers: Dr. Stefanie Haustein, Adrian T. Stanley, Clare Appavoo, Sapna Mahaja
With the demand for an all-in transition to open access imminent, publishers are at an inflection point. The sustainability of new and untested publishing models poses uncertainties for publishers and may raise unintentional financial burdens to researchers, reinforcing systemic inequalities and global inequities. How does Canada make open access a sustainable way forward for discovery and dissemination of scholarly communications? This panel is a solutions-focused and audience-driven discussion to propose realistic next steps for Canada’s science stakeholders to develop and test frameworks that support a sustainable shift to open access.
Organized by: Future Earth/Sustainability in the Digital Age
Moderator: Eliane Ubalijoro
Speakers: Mary-Kate Craig, Kim Neale, Gordon McBean, Jérôme Marty
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) could help Canada meet 2030 carbon reduction commitments while protecting biodiversity and providing multiple ecosystem services that improve the well-being of humanity; but their long-term impacts are still poorly understood and they don’t engage all stakeholders for an equitable and effective approach forward. The panel’s objective is to discuss preliminary Canadian NbS trends and data needs. We also assess the co-creation of NbS, centering these solutions around Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. This panel also explores recent gatherings towards strengthening Indigenous Carbon Rights as a crucial pillar of NbS success in Canada and globally.
Organized by: University of Ottawa
Moderator: André Picard
Speakers: Dr. Tanya Horsley, Dr. Colleen Flood, Dr. Teresa Scassa, Dr. Catherine Régis, Dr. Devin Singh, Dr. Zachary Kaminsky
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform healthcare, addressing long-standing problems of safety, quality and access. Yet, AI itself also raises concerns relating, for instance, to algorithmic bias, apportionment of liability, safety, privacy and informed consent. Are our existing legal structures, across Canada, sufficient to meet these 21st century challenges? Our panel will discuss their research program of work shopping case studies with a multidisciplinary group (legal, clinical, computer science, engineering, ethics) of a range of health-related AI across healthcare settings. In doing so they will illuminate the heterogeneity of challenges AI presents and the needs we have for adroit law reform.
Organized by: Roche
Moderator: Robyn Saccon
Speakers: Jennifer Dotchin, Cathy Barrick, Padraic Ward, Laura Tamblyn Watts
With a focus on brain health, our health system has an opportunity to seek and enact models and mechanisms to find innovative ways to support people living with neurological disorders like Dementia. This panel will foster dialogue on how we can learn from other jurisdictions, understand the impact of the current care continuum, and highlight the need to drive better outcomes through partnerships.
Organized by: ISED
Moderator: Wendy Therrien
Speakers: Charmaine B. Dean, Nigel Smith, Dr. David MaGee
The panel will discuss how Canadian institutions are handling the issue of research security. Research security refers to the ability to identify possible security risks to a researcher’s work and determine the measures that minimize these risks to protect scientific research and discovery. Canada and like-minded countries are attractive targets to hostile actors with malicious intent, and this year’s panel will invite experts from universities and third-party organizations that conduct research to discuss what these organizations are doing to maintain an open and secure research environment in an era of increasing risk.
Organized by: Public Health Agency of Canada
Moderator: Dr. Sarah Viehbeck
Speakers: Dr. Shannon McDonald, Dr. John Lavis, Dr. Matthew Tunis, Tammy Clifford
The response to COVID-19 placed an unprecedented demand on the creation and use of evidence to support timely and effective decision-making, both domestically and globally. This panel will reflect and build upon learnings from COVID-19 concerning how evidence is funded, synthesized, and used across different stakeholders in a learning health systems approach. The interdisciplinary and multi-organizational panellists will reflect on the different types of, and approaches to gathering evidence; responsiveness to shifting needs; opportunities to formalize collaboration and scale rapid response capacity; strengthening health equity through engagement of community and cultural partners; and better utilizing the information in decision-making.
Organized by: National Research Council
Moderator: Dr. Joel Martin
Speakers: Dr. Teresa Scassa, Alain Tchagang, Elissa Strome, Nicole Janssen, Ratmir Derda
Science and discovery is a driving force of global economies. The use of AI and machine learning for science and engineering has the potential to radically transform the nature of scientific inquiry and discovery. This panel will 1) examine the unique legal, ethical, social and policy considerations for AI for science and discovery; and 2) engage with the audience to identify gaps in current policies and next steps for addressing those gaps, including follow-up actions for further engagement with stakeholders.
Organized by: Health Canada in collaboration with Indigenous Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Cluster (I-STEM)
Moderator: Dr. Emily McAuley, Dr. Cara Tannenbaum
Speakers: Dr. Steven Alexander, Dr. Amy Cardinal-Christianson, Mr. Gary Mallach, Dr. Kyle Bobiwash
The purpose of this panel is to highlight practices and innovative insights for the equitable and ethical treatment of Indigenous Science (IS) in federal research. With the help of a few case studies from diverse and intersecting contexts, this panel will discuss, dialogue, and identify fundamental elements to acknowledge the meaningful inclusion of IS in federal research. In the course of discussion and dialogue, this panel aims to underscore some key elements as bridging agents to enable a fuller understanding, and valuing of IS in federal science. Additionally, the panelists are uniquely positioned to reflect on how bridging knowledge systems can support and enhance the mutual interests of Indigenous communities and federal science.