Peter Nicholson selected to lead Canadian Academies of Science

Brings impressive network of contacts

The Canadian Academies of Science (CAS) has scored a major coup with the appointment of Dr Peter Nicholson as its inaugural president. Nicholson joins the fledgling CAS just days after stepping down from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and will immediately set to work filling key positions and travelling the country to meet with members of the three scientific societies that comprise the new organization.

Nicholson has been a major player in Canadian S&T for several decades and is considered one of the best and most widely connected senior officials in Canada. He has an impressive track record that spans business, academia and government, the latter in both elected and bureaucratic capacities. Most recently, he took on the role of deputy chief of staff - policy with the PMO for two years, following a shorter stint in Paris as special advisor to Donald Johnston, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

"This is a terrific opportunity to build something for the country ... This is a position that fits a lot of what I have unwittingly prepared myself for all my life. The overlap between the job and my experience is exceptional," says Nicholson. "I'm a bit of a policy wonk and my original education was heavily science based ... I've always kept my hand in it, even with very remote day jobs."

The CAS is now operational thanks to $30 million in government funding. The money was announced in the last Liberal Budget to be spread over 10 years (R$, March 9/05), capping a five-year process that finally puts Canada on a level playing field with other industrialized nations. Its primary functions are to conduct expert scientific assessments for government or other organizations and represent Canada on the international scientific stage. The component organizations of the arm's length, not-for-profit CAS are the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

In addition to his longstanding interest in science and science policy, Nicholson says that the primary asset he can offer to the CAS is his elaborate and diverse range of contacts.

"I have a terrific network around town that's developed over the years," he says. "A long-term network and familiarity of the policy issues will help me with my role, which is to build an organization that can do the job that its mission describes."

Securing an individual with Nicholson's credentials gives the nascent CAS an immediate profile that will help to establish its credentials as a scientific body of international stature.

"Peter Nicholson will be a wonderful asset to the CAS. He has all the attributes to be an excellent president," says Dr Howard Alper, the Univ of Ottawa's VP research and chair of the CAS board of directors. "Some remarkable people applied for the position. It was a very competitive process and produced the best slate of candidates I've ever seen."

For the foreseeable future, the CAS will focus on conducting assessments proposed by the federal government. As its primary funder, the government can request up to five assessments annually, according to methodology developed by Industry Canada and the Office of the National Science Advisor (NSA).

Late last year, an initial list of 17 topics was whittled down to six before being forwarded to a sub-committee of the ADM Committee on S&T. Co-chaired by NSA executive director Kevin Fitzgibbons and Iain Stewart, DG innovation policy at Industry Canada, the sub-committee reduced the number to three, which will be submitted to the CAS by Maxime Bernier, the new minister of Industry. An Industry Canada official says he hopes Bernier will forward the list in the coming weeks, adding that a regularly scheduled process akin to an RFP has been established to solicit new assessment topic areas.

If the CAS accepts the topic areas as proposed, it will assemble expert panels to conduct the assessments - a process expected to take between 12 and 18 months at a cost of $350,000-400,000 - which will be submitted to government and publicly released.

"Transparency is one of the key watchwords of this process. We'll be very conscious and rigorous about that," says Nicholson.

BUILDING THE CAS WILL TAKE TIME

Most industrialized nations have had an academy of science for decades, if not centuries, and Nicholson is under no illusions that the process of establishing a world class organization will take time.

"The National Academies in the US is a model of what we are trying to be but on a massive scale. It goes back to Abraham Lincoln and does about 300 assessments a year," he says. "Fifteen or twenty years ahead, we will take our place proportionally as significant as the NA."

Many people have been involved in the drive to establish a national science academy for Canada, but two stand out as the critical drivers behind the initiative - former RSC president Dr William Leiss and Alper. It was Leiss who introduced the concept of an expert panel division to the RSC, after that organization conducted several high-profile assessments of topics such as genetically modified foods (R$, June 9/00). An initial push to establish an academy was taken up by Dr Gilbert Normand, former secretary of state for science, research and development.

Alper was also active in the early advocacy campaign and has maintained quiet pressure on government ever since, through his tenure as RSC president to his current role as CAS board chair. After falling off the government's priority agenda in 2002 and 2003, it was successfully revived in 2004 with assistance from NSA Dr Arthur Carty.

"The roots of this organization stretch far back in time. Canada is the last OECD country that doesn't have something analogous," says Nicholson. "The expert assessments and the science that underlies important policy will be the primary function of the CAS. But it will also represent the voice of Canadian science internationally. I want to promote and communicate the value of science."

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