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15th Canadian Science Policy Conference

November 13th-15th, 2023, at the Westin Ottawa hotel

CSPC 2023 Themes & Topics:

Science and Innovation in a Time of Transformation

The 15th Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC 2023), will be held in person on November 13th – 15th, 2023. The conference expects 1000+ participants, more than 300 speakers, in 60 panel sessions. CSPC 2022 will also include a spectacular Gala dinner featuring its award ceremony which has become a signature annual event to celebrate Canadian science and innovation policy achievements.

We invite you to submit proposals in a variety of presentation formats that revolve around any of the conference topics. The conference tracks and topic can be found below.

Panel Submission Deadline: May 5th, 2023

CSPC 2023 Overarching Theme:
Science and Innovation in a Time of Transformation

Track 1: Science and Policy

  • The national STI ecosystem: Strategy for the next ten years; building on strengths and opportunities; addressing weaknesses
    • Modernizing the federal research support system
    • Strengthening Intergovernmental coordination and cooperation
    • Learning from international experiences
    • Assessing and fostering Canadian global leadership in STI
    • Governance of Science, technology and innovation
  • Managing the evolving/changing research landscape
    • Inter- and trans-disciplinarity, co-production of knowledge, effective integration of all fields of knowledge and ways of knowing
    • Science for social and economic objectives (including the UN SDGs)
    • Research security
    • Barriers and Opportunities in Open Science
    • Braiding Indigenous and Western knowledge
    • Optimizing benefits from national infrastructures, including data as infrastructure
    • Equity, diversity, inclusion, and racism in science
  • Evidence for policy
    • Science advice for Parliament
    • Best practices for bridging research and policy
    • Standardization, quality and transparency
    • The impact of ChatGPT
  • Science policy futures

Track 2: Science and Society

  • Public trust
    • Mis- and disinformation
    • Science communication in a post-truth era
    • Diverse forms of knowledge and ways of knowing
    • Science and social justice
    • Social trust, cohesion, social innovation
  • Systemic racism, otherism
  • Science in support of democracy
  • Science and Truth and Reconciliation
  • Science policy and aging
  • Science, technology and ethics
  • Science and innovation: public education

Track 3: Innovation and Economic Development

  • Canada’s Innovation strategy, 10 years outlook
    • Innovation in government investments in R&D and innovation
    • Regional development and innovation actions
    • Global Innovation Clusters
    • Digital challenges and strategy
  • Emerging economic opportunities
    • The conservation economy & the circular economy
    • The blue economy
  • Emerging and disruptive technologies
    • AI, including Chat GPT
    • Quantum
    • Gene editing
    • Ethical dimensions
  • Sector policies and challenges
    • Canadian Mineral Strategy
    • Facilitating the energy transition, including transportation infrastructure
    • Biomanufacturing capacity, security and competitiveness
    • Cleantech

Track 4: Science, International Affairs and Security

  • International STI agreements and Canada’s interest,
  • Assessing and fostering Canadian global leadership in STI
    Managing Canada’s approaches to emerging international industrial strategies and knowledge sharing
  • International opportunities, e.g.,
    • Horizon Europe
    • The Indo-Pacific strategy
  • International collaboration
    • Large, concerted projects and major facilities
    • Security and cyber security
    • Foreign investment
    • Science, technology, innovation in the context of geopolitical shifts
  • Science diplomacy and geopolitics

Track 5: Science and The Next Generation

  • Research training
    • Revisiting the PhD
    • The welfare of research trainees
    • Fostering the next generation of science policy experts
  • Career transitions
    • Transitions between sectors in the science ecosystem

Track 6: Grand Challenges

  • Climate change
    • Mitigation and adaptation
    • Informing climate change action with data
    • Net Zero
    • Water resources and conservation
    • Nature-based solutions
  • Healthcare
    • Measuring healthcare outcomes
    • Towards meaningful indicators of the health system
    • Accessibility of health data
    • Issues in sharing, using and reporting health data
    • Pandemic preparedness
  • One Health
    • Zoonotic diseases
    • Environmental Health
    • Vector born diseases
  • The North
    • Permafrost – the next big challenge
    • Science, security and Canada’s Arctic
  • Food and agriculture
    • Future of food
    • A national food strategy?
    • Food Safety
  • Energy sovereignty