U of O and NRCan plan joint research facility

The Univ of Ottawa is hoping that a integrated collaborative R&D initiative with Natural Resources Canada's Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) will help to revive a once-proud Canadian institution and train a new generation of world class geologists. The U of O's proposal to establish the Central Canada Institute of Environmental Geosciences and Natural Resources was one of two initiatives accepted by the government upon receipt of an Expert Panel report identifying early candidates for the transfer of federal laboratories into the university and private sectors (see page 1).

The proposal would merge five labs within GSC with U of O's faculties of earth sciences and environmental science along with geological expertise from Carleton Univ in a new facility to be constructed on U of O's campus. Discussions have been ongoing for nearly one year and all parties are working to prepare a business model by the fall, in time for the next federal Budget cycle.

"Re-location to the university would reinvigorate the GSC and get young people involved," says Dr André Lalonde, U of O's dean of science and a geology professor with the earth sciences faculty. "We have tremendous natural resources in Canada, especially the Canadian shield which will be our main focus. Exploitation (of those resources) involve new challenges especially the environmental aspects. We need continued exploitation but in a responsible, sustainable way."

NRCan's geoscience laboratories were identified by the Expert Panel as a prime candidate for inter-sectoral collaboration. The Panel's report noted that the initiative "reflects the urgent need for infrastructure renewal at the GSC".

"Over the years, many universities collaborated with the GSC and students were trained by this mechanism. It gave Canada a unique global advantage,' says Lalonde, who spent three summers as a student working with the GSC in the Northwest Territories. "We lost this advantage because of chronic funding cutbacks and we ended up with an institution that was essentially crippled. Researchers can no longer do field work and are locked up in their offices doing nothing."

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