Council of Canadian Academies hitting stride with full slate of expert assessments

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has a full slate of assessments under development and is branching out to take on projects outside its base funding agreement, creating stresses and strains that its president says are typical for any start-up. Tasked with providing expert assessments on issues in which S&T plays a key role, the CCA has already completed three with several more due in the coming months including the highly anticipated report from the Expert Panel on Private Sector Innovation in Canada.

"We're up and walking. I'd say we may even be past Kindergarten and probably in about Grade 3," says CCA president Dr Peter Nicholson. "We've been through two or three rounds of proposal generation from the government, we've got our board procedures pretty well oiled now and it will get better over time. Our budgeting procedures and financial management are in good shape so this adds up to more than a toddler. But it's still a long way from a high school student."

high Arctic research

The latest assessment to be undertaken is also the first to be funded outside of the Industry Canada founding grant that established the CCA in 2005 (R$, March 9/05). The Council will be holding an international symposium in Helsinki to gauge expert opinion on Canada's proposed research station in the high Arctic. Announced in last year's Speech from the Throne, the station's research agenda is being developed within Canada but the government — specifically the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs — wants to compare the results from that process with international expert opinion. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, special advisor to the Nuclear Waste management Organization and chair of the CCA's scientific advisory committee, is chairing the panel.

"It's unusual in that the panel gets together only once and they have some documents to comment on. We will write a report, the panel will approve it and the report will be a record of their proceedings," says Nicholson. "We're also doing it outside the founding grant we got from the government … That's a first. We hope eventually to do a lot more on that kind of funding basis, not necessarily with the government. It just happens this time that the government is also the client."

The decision to hold the symposium in Helsinki stems from a presentation Nicholson made to the 100-year-old Finnish Academy of Science and Letters last April. Nicholson was there to share the CCA's experience with conducting assessments – a role the Finnish academy hopes to add to its existing activities. Nicholson says the link between his presentation and the upcoming Helsinki symposium underlines the importance of liaison with the CCA's counterparts around the world.

"It was always imagined when we were created that we would have outreach to sister organizations around the world … It (the Helsinki symposium) is a wonderful example of how this can pay off quickly," he says. "We've had a huge benefit from our relationship with the national academies (US National Research Council) in Washington because their experience is almost directly transferable. As we learn more about ourselves we can learn a lot more from them. We've got a better idea now of the questions to ask and we can get into much more detail."

In addition to the US and Finland, the CCA has held meetings with the British Royal Society, L'Académie des sciences de l'Institut de France, and various learned groups in Germany. Nicholson notes that discussions with these societies are mainly limited to their role in the performance of assessments.

The CCA is also planning to sponsor an international workshop on assessments to be held by the Inter-Academy Panel (IAP) in Trieste Italy next February. The IAP —co-chaired by Dr Howard Alper, chair of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) — has more than 100 members. Nicholson says the CCA limits its outreach activities to two or three events annually, but that will increase once the organization's staffing shortage is resolved.

"We've been short staffed and that means we burn a lot of midnight oil around here. When we have five assessments on the go all at once, we have meetings all the time and all the background work has to be done. This has stretched the organization to the point where it isn't really sustainable in the long run," he says. "It's like most start-ups. They burn the midnight oil and work weekends. There are a lot of parts of your life that take a hit when you're trying to get something off the ground and this is no different ... I'm not complacent but neither am I concerned that we're not going to be able to find the people we need or we're not going to be able to get up to cruising altitude. I think we will but we're at least a year away from that."

The CCA's is also working to fill vacancies on its board of governors. One recent appointee is Dr Dan Wayner, who replaced Alper when he resigned to take on the leadership of STIC. The only vacancy left was created when Dr Martha Piper resigned to take up the position of board chair for the National Institute for Nanotechnology.

preston manning joins cca

The most recent appointment to the 12-person body is Preston Manning. Manning was chosen by Industry minister Jim Prentice who made the recommendation to the Council. As the primary funding source, Industry Canada is allowed to recommend two people to the board.

Manning says he will be joining the board of governors at its next meeting and will offer his perspectives on issues he considers important to Canada's future: the communications gaps between business and science and science and politicians and the relatively low level of Canadian business R&D spending.

Manning is also exploring the potential for establishing a private sector-funded think tank on S&T. A one-day informal consultation was held last fall to explore potential support among business and philanthropic organizations

"In the private sector there's a lack of R&D commitment, especially in the natural resources sector. Why is that? Also all the party platforms are fairly thin on S&T. The idea for a think tank is sound but it's too early to say if it will happen."

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