Ontario to appoint provincial chief scientist

Ontario is pushing ahead with plans to establish a chief scientist for the province following premier Dalton McGuinty's announcement while on a life sciences trade mission to Israel. The new position — a first for Canadian provinces — would help to identify commercialization opportunities, especially those relating to its three R&D priorities — life sciences, green energy and clean water and provide advice on how to achieve better alignment of the various players in the innovation system.

McGuinty made the announcement at the Weiszmann Institute of Science where he stopped with a large delegation of executives from Ontario tech firms and research institutions. In remarks, he said Ontario needs someone who can scan the world niche opportunities and advise on better alignment amongst its research and innovation organizations which are currently "pulling in different directions".

"We will work on it almost immediately … We're following the lead of other jurisdictions including obviously Israel," says John Milloy, who holds the dual portfolio of Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities and Minister of Research and Innovation. "We want to learn how to bring in the best advice so we're in a good position to present the premier with information."

Milloy says he's familiar with the short-lived attempt to establish a science advisor at the national level and determined to avoid its pitfalls. Dr Arthur Carty was appointed as Canada's national science advisor (NSA) in 2004 but the position was compromised from the outset by a vague mandate and an inadequate resources. After being downgraded in 2006, it was eventually dissolved in early 2008 (R$, January 21/08).

"We'll look at other jurisdictions and also look at what happened federally to ensure that the mandate and the resources are there," says Milloy.

MRI has been working to find better ways to infuse the best science advice into its operations and has already established a number of relationships with leading scientists and researchers. It currently has a departmental science advisor — Dr Kamiel Gabriel — who is also ADM for the science and research division. Gabriel has nearly completed a one-year secondment from the Univ of Ontario Institute of Technology where he is the associate provost (research) and a professor in the faculty of engineering and applied science specializing in energy conservation processes and technologies.

R$