Council of Canadian Academies receives favourable review from external panel

An external review of the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has found that demand for its expertise has soared 85% over the past three years and that its sponsors are becoming increasingly diverse. The external evaluation panel also concluded that the CCA's work has had a substantial and beneficial impact on government, policy makers and society at large and "has planted seeds that will have future policy and program impacts".

The CCA was established seven years ago with $30-million over 10 years from Industry Canada to conduct science-based assessments for the federal government and other clients (R$, March 9/05).

The review was conducted according to five core principles as set out by Treasury Board to determine whether the CCA is required, aligned with government priorities, aligned with federal roles and responsibilities, achieving expected outcomes and being run efficiently and economically. The report concluded that the CCA is meeting expectations on all five counts.

The panel concluded that although the CCA is government-funded and accepts assessment proposals from various departments and agencies, its work is independent.

"Sponsor involvement in an assessment is limited to the beginning, in terms of crystalizing the question to be undertaken by the expert panel," states the evaluation report. "Following this initial meeting, there are no further communications between the expert panel and the sponsor. This allows the expert panel to operate in an autonomous environment."

The evaluation panel included Richard Dicerni (chair) adjunct research professor, Ivey Business School, Western University and former DM Industry Canada; Dr James Reisa, director of Environmental Studies and Toxicology, US National Research Council;and Dr Stephen Toope president and vice chancellor, Univ of British Columbia.

The CCA is one of two bodies providing S&T advice to the federal government. The other is the Science, Technology and Innovation Council which produces bi-annual reports on the state of Canadian S&T and provides confidential advice to the government.

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