CIFAR teams with Banff Centre to explore synergies between science and the arts

It may seem an unlikely partnership at first glance, but the recently announced collaboration between the Banff Centre and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is borne of desire to merge cutting-edge science with the arts in an environment geared towards creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. The agreement between the two organizations will see the creation of a new global academy located at Banff and a leadership program for young researchers.

The Banff Centre will also become a focal point for future CIFAR research events which, as a virtual organization, has held meetings at rented facilities as the need arose.

"There's great complementarity between the CIFAR and the Banff Centre. They're both Canadian-based but global, both about creativity, and both about bringing together the best people in their respective fields," says Dr Alan Bernstein, CIFAR's president and CEO. "We ultimately need a place to meet and what better place than Banff. Space matters to have inspiring thoughts."

The Banff Centre is touted as the world's largest arts incubator with a suite of programs geared towards the arts, leadership and education. It is a popular venue for many organizations and events and is partially supported by federal and provincial funding.

As the CIFAR/Banff partnership grows, the two organizations plan to explore the potential for incubating new areas of inquiry across their respective disciplines, build on their education missions and use the new academy to provide fellowships to young scholars early in their career development.

"This is a real collaboration. It's not motivated by the financial side. We want to create conversations around issues facing the planet," says Banff Centre president Jeff Melanson. "It will be a platform for people to gather as equals. Content creation and dissemination will be a key part of our joint mandate."

The decision to enter into a formal collaboration came about following discussions between the heads of the two organizations last summer during a meeting on the role of the humanities in a multi-cultural society.

The partnership marks the latest attempt to merge research disciplines that, at first glance, appear disparate. It is also the first tangible outcome of a re-engineering exercise now ongoing at CIFAR that will see new initiatives and collaborations emerge in the coming months.

Bernstein says CIFAR has taken time to question the basic assumptions upon which CIFAR was originally founded and while the process reaffirmed the overall relevance of its mission and research activities, it also pointed to the necessity of change.

"The context in which CIFAR is operating has vastly changed, both in the funding landscape and how research is conducted. It was time to push the re-set button for CIFAR 2.0," says Bernstein, who joined the organization May 1/12 following a four-year stint as head of the New York City-based Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. "Partnerships are going to become a new priority at CIFAR under the leadership of Denis Therién. Looking at the organization at its 30-year point under a new president, it's a good time to do it."

CIFAR is not the first research entity that the Banff Centre has welcomed to its facilities on an ongoing basis. Banff is already home to the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) — a novel Canada-US initiative that opened in 2003. Modelled on similar research stations in Germany and France, the BIRS partnership has since been extended to include Mexico.

CIFAR has already scheduled a meeting of its cosmology and gravity research group for later this month and plans to line up other research forums in the near future. For Bernstein, Banff's proven track record in leadership development and public outreach will be particularly valuable as the re-engineered CIFAR evolves.

"Still early days. We're exploring our collaborative potential. CIFAR's role with the humanities has been under discussion for some time," says Bernstein. "Any of CIFAR's research programs could collaborate with the centre if you look at it in a cross-cutting way. For example, Banff offers leadership programs and CIFAR?has never availed itself of this before. We could offer a leadership program geared to young researchers."

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