CCA works to diversify funding, assessment sources as it plans beyond current mandate

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) is developing a long-term, diversified funding strategy as it enters the second half of its 10-year funding agreement with Industry Canada. The move — along with closer ties to its member academies and a broader range of experts on its assessment panels — was recommended by an expert panel that recently reported on the CCA's activities for its first five years of operation.

The CCA's ongoing efforts to plan for the future and improve its assessment procedures are contained in its recently released annual report. Entitled Evidence First, the report offers a concise snapshot of the CCA's evolution. It also reveals that more than $21 million remains from its original $30-million, 10-year funding agreement, raising questions over whether the arm's-length organization has ramped up to full capacity as envisaged at its inception.

The annual report says the CCA is already acting to expand the sources of its topics and diversify its assessment mechanisms. In 2010, the CCA fast-tracked a submission to the Digital Economy Strategy consultation process and teamed with the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences to conduct a joint project on global health.

The CCA also committed to strengthen ties with its member academies, once again acting on a recommendation of the expert panel review. That panel urged the CCA to combine its assets with the member academies "in a synergistic way to create a shared and collective vision".

Relations between the CCA and the member academies have been strained, principally due to the funding mandate with Industry Canada which forbids the members from accessing funding for its own assessments. In response, the member academies are working to develop their own revenues to facilitate assessments independent of government.

In FY11-12, CCA is already slated to perform four new assessments: Science, Performance and Research Funding (sponsor: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council); Women in University Research (sponsor: Industry Canada); Sustainable Management of Water in the Agricultural Landscapes of Canada (sponsor: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada); and, The State of Science and Technology in Canada (sponsor: Industry Canada). The latter is a follow-up to the CCA's best known expert panel report — Innovation and Business Strategy: Why Canada Falls Short.

The CCA was unavailable to be interviewed for this article.

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