Canadian science in the spotlight as Vancouver hosts AAAS conference

Opportunity to boost international presence

Canada became ground zero for scientific excellence last week when 7,000 delegates and 700 journalists converged on Vancouver to attend the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) — the second time in the organization's 164-history that it has held the event north of the 49th parallel. The conference generated massive media coverage stemming from the meeting's 170 sessions, keynote presentations and trade show and provided international exposure to a large number of participating Canadian scientists and their work.

More than 170 Canadians participated and representatives from more than half of the world's top universities had representation.

Canadian participants point to the interdisciplinary nature of AAAS meetings and their inclusion of media, youth delegates and members of the general public as an unprecedented opportunity to showcase the nation's research strengths and innovation policies at a time when research is rapidly going global.

The global nature of today's research enterprise was reinforced by the conference's title — Flattening the World: Building a Global Knowledge Society — which highlighted the diverse range of collaboration taking place in areas as diverse as food safety, climate change, HIV and AIDS prevention, ocean health and science policy.

"One of the great strengths of AAAS is its inclusiveness. It's one of the few venues where you can have a conversation with a chemist, a philosopher or someone from the media. The collision of those ideas and often unobstructed interactions provides a setting for those kinds of connections that are really valuable," says Dr Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and one of two Canadian granting council heads to attend the whole conference. "Having AAAS in Canada really relates well to some of our research agendas, which is now a global exercise. The more we can engage internationally in terms of that conversation about the world of research and the world of global challenges, the better."

The AAAS conference also provided an opportunity to highlight Canadian research initiatives that are leading the world. In the area of talent attraction and research networking, several Canadian programs stand out and are being emulated in other countries. But ensuring that Canada benefits from research leadership elsewhere is emerging as a key challenge.

"What we're doing cannot be done at a national level any longer. This is really a global environment for research and innovation and our ability to forge strategic partnerships at the global level will be very important for our future success," says Dr Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. "I think our industrial sector sees that and in the research enterprise we're seeing it as well. But we need to choose our partners well."

One example of an emerging trend of international partnerships is the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative, launched last year to combine expertise by launching large projects in the areas of energy and environment, health and ecosystem and resource informatics. The initiative was cited by Frithjof Maennel of Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research as an example of how his country is seeking to collaborate abroad.

The efforts of other nations to scale up carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies was the focus of another session with representatives from German, Australia and the US. It's estimated that the global exploitation of CCS technologies will be essential tool in the battle to control the impact of climate change. Michael Kuehn of Germany's Centre for CO2 Storage says that suitable sites for CCS operations worldwide can accommodate nearly 12,000 gigatons of CO2 or about 25% of the reduction target required to stem climate change.

media muzzling controversy

From a Canadian perspective, the conference was not without controversy. A session on the opening day on Unmuzzling Government Scientists: How to Re-Open the Discourse, drew a capacity crowd and unleashed an international media firestorm over ways in which the Harper government constrains federal scientists from speaking to the media.

Chaired by Kathryn O'Hara, a professor with Carleton Univ's School of Journalism, the panel included Postmedia journalist Margaret Munro, Francesca Grifo of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists and Dr Andrew Weaver, a Univ of Victoria climate scientist. Claire Dansereau, DM at Fisheries and Oceans Canada was listed in the conference program but failed to attend.

The session also marked the launch of a campaign to lobby for "timely and open access to federally funded scientists". Also released was an open letter, asking the prime minister to "tear down the wall that separates scientists, journalists and the public". It was signed by the president of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Canadian Science Writers Association, World Federation of Science Journalists, Professional Institute for the Public Service of canada, Association des communicateurs scientifiques du Québec and Association science et bien commun.

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