Dr Peter Nicholson, chair, the NCE's Standing Selection Committee and past president, Council of Canadian Academies.

A roadmap for the NCE's next 25 years

By Dr Peter Nicholson

A quarter century ago, Canada needed to create a critical mass of research talent capable of overcoming the limitations posed by our vast geography and research silos in order to tackle big, complex issues well beyond the scope and resources of any single organization or research team. Thus was born in 1989 the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program, an innovative initiative led by academia, industry and government that has revolutionized Canada's approach to research, knowledge translation and engagement with end-users.

Supporting Canada's Innovation Ecosystem

Innovation occurs in a larger ecosystem that includes material resources, human capital (e.g., entrepreneurs, researchers and other skilled people), institutions (e.g., post-secondaries and their funders, venture capitalists), and policy makers who influence the business climate. Building a more innovative Canada requires that we enhance the performance of the entire innovation ecosystem and, crucially, the interactions among its various elements.

The NCE program has become a valuable part of this ecosystem. Take ocean research. Canada is home to three world-class science clusters in B.C., Quebec and Atlantic Canada But as a recent Council of Canadian Academies report concluded, coordination across jurisdictions and disciplines is needed to maintain this leadership position. This requirement is tailor-made for the NCE approach which today supports ArcticNet and the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR) as well as two Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECRs) – Ocean Networks Canada Innovation Centre (ONCIC) and LOOKNorth.

MEOPAR and ONCIC, for example, collaborate with academia and industry to open new markets for Canadian ocean technologies, while both ArcticNet and LOOKNorth work closely with multiple scientific disciplines as well as communities, governments and industry to ensure safe, responsible and sustainable development of Canada's north.

Moreover, in the field of ocean science, the relevant innovation ecosystem is inherently international. That is why German Chancellor Angela Merkel signed an agreement in 2012 supporting greater collaboration between Canadian and German researchers, including formal links with ArcticNet and MEOPAR.

"Grand Opportunities"

The NCE program has helped create a culture where researchers have become adept at bringing a multidisciplinary perspective to questions of broad significance. I believe we now should focus these hard-earned collaborative, transdisciplinary skills on a set of "Grand Opportunities"—areas where the nexus of Canada's needs and the global state of knowledge have created exceptional opportunities for innovation. I would single out four—and the choice can of course be debated—where the NCE program could make important contributions.

The natural environment: Canada is a steward of a significant share of the earth's natural resources and one of its largest energy producers. This creates a special responsibility to develop and deploy innovative systems to reduce our negative impact on the environment while building commercial competencies that will be in high demand abroad.

There are a dozen NCE networks, CECRs and Business-Led NCEs that deal directly with these opportunities. With more resources, the NCE can continue building on these results to translate knowledge into action domestically and commercial opportunity globally.

The brain: The brain is today's great frontier in biology, medicine and psychology. New observational technologies have created a window on its structure and "performance" that holds the promise of understanding and mitigating disease processes as well as the identifying ways in which mental capability can be sustained or even enhanced.

Many of the new research efforts in this field are transdisciplinary, spanning biology, medicine, engineering, psychology, computer science and philosophy. This breadth makes study of the brain particularly apt for the NCE approach. We have already made a good start with two NCEs—the Canadian Stroke Network and NeuroDevNet. But there is much more to be done to unlock the secrets of the human brain.

Artificial intelligence: In the early days of the microchip there were exaggerated expectations as to when genuine artificial intelligence (AI) would be achieved. But now, suddenly, the exponential impact of Moore's Law is being felt everywhere from flexible robots, to sophisticated voice response, to superhuman query-response systems (like IBM's Watson), to driverless cars. While the opportunities are mind-boggling, the implications for the economy, jobs and society are perhaps a little scary.

The NCE supports some leading-edge contributions to the field. For example, the Wavefront CECR connects technology developers with global business leaders to solve industry-specific challenges with machine-to-machine technologies. The Graphics, Animation and New Media Canada NCE unites many disciplines to explore the application of digital media in everything from entertainment and healthcare to education and environmental sustainability.

The NCE needs to keep looking forward, leading to a better comprehension of AI so that we can manage this revolutionary group of technologies for the benefit of society.

Smart cities: Two of the grand opportunities outlined above—the environment and AI—find expression in the "smart city." This refers to the use of information and communications technologies to make urban areas work better; for example, by increasing the capacity (and reducing the environmental impact) of transportation; improving the energy efficiency of structures; and enhancing the safety of neighbourhoods. The issues raised are inherently transdisciplinary and require an approach that links research, implementation and people (the end-users) in networks of innovation—again, the circumstances for which the NCE model is ideally suited.

The NCE program is a genuine Canadian innovation that has given this country a unique body of experience in the networked approach to big issues. There is no shortage of opportunities as the program looks ahead to its next quarter-century. It is time to elevate our ambition and rededicate the NCE model to tackle the truly transformative issues that will define our future.

Dr Peter Nicholson chairs the NCE's Standing Selection Committee and is past president, Council of Canadian Academies.