Who Defines Research Impact?

Tim Evans is Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Impact at Concordia University. He earned a medical degree from McMaster University and a DPhil in agricultural economics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Before joining Concordia, Evans was the inaugural director and associate dean of the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University, where he also served as associate vice-president of global policy and innovation. He was executive director of Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and held senior leadership roles at the World Bank, the World Health Organization and BRAC University.

Throughout his career, Evans has played a key role in advancing global health initiatives. He co-founded Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, led the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health and worked to expand access to HIV treatment and midwifery training in Bangladesh.

Dr. Kelly Cobey is a scientist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. She is currently Co-Chair of the international Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the leading global initiative promoting the reform of how research and researchers are evaluated. Her research focuses on meta-research, open science implementation, research integrity, and responsible metrics, with particular expertise in the health sciences. [sfdora.org], [ottawaheart.ca]

Dr. Nadine Caron is an advocate for marginalized peoples’ rights in health care and research. Her scholarly and professional activities centre on optimizing Indigenous and northern Canadians’ health, and addressing inequities in access to surgical services, cancer care, prescription medications and research.

Jesse Vincent-Herscovici is President and Chief Executive Officer of Axelys, the organization mandated by the Government of Québec to support the development and transfer of innovations stemming from public research. He has nearly 20 years of experience in leadership, strategic development, and partnership building across the research and innovation sector.

In Québec, he actively contributes to discussions with government and key ecosystem stakeholders on strategic directions and public policies shaping research and innovation. His expertise spans the commercialization of public research, intellectual property, technology maturation, technology transfer, and bringing innovations to market.

At the Canadian level, he also engages with decision-makers and government bodies on the conditions needed to increase the economic and societal impact of research. He appeared on several occasions before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research.

Carole Jabet is Vice-president Research, Scientific direction – Life Science sector, for the Fonds de recherche du Québec, where she works to support excellence in health research, recognized worldwide and which contributes to the well-being of the population. During her career, she participated in the establishment of research funding programs and structuring projects and in the establishment of partnerships with high added value with private
and public actors in the health sector. She actively contributes to the definition and implementation of initiatives facilitating the development and implementation of innovations in the health care network.

Carole Jabet is an engineer from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon and a PhD in molecular biophysics from the École Centrale de Paris, a postdoctoral fellow in the Biophysics department of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She has held positions for technical and economic evaluation of innovations and for strategic management of scientific affairs (VP, Scientific Affairs – Genome Québec; partner at CapCOGITO; Deputy Director of Research at the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal – CHUM). Madame Jabet sits on the boards of FRQ, CQDM, QIS, Montreal InVivo, Axelys and Mères avec Pouvoir.

Daniel W. Lang is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at the University of Toronto, where he previously was Vice Provost, Planning and Budget, Vice-President, Computing and

Communications, and Senior Policy Advisor to the President. He is a recipient of the Palgrave Prize from the International Association of Universities, the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education, Distinguished Member Award, the University of Toronto Arbor Award, and the Papal Order of St. Gregory. His governing board memberships include the Center for Research Libraries (Treasurer), Algoma University, the Toronto School of Theology, Saint Augustine’s Seminary, Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, and King’s University College (Vice-chair and Treasurer). He was editor of the Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 1976-1980. As head coach of the University of Toronto Varsity baseball team, he was named OUA Coach of the Year twice and All-Star Coach once. He is a member of the University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame and recipient of the OUA John McManus Award.