To diffuse technology or not to diffuse: that’s the question
Let me give you a choice between two compelling narratives on the topic of diffusion—efforts to make technologies available by means of government policies. The first is an argument for the broad diffusion of biotechnologies, including synthetic biology and CRISPR (a genome editing tool). The other is an argument for a slow-down or clamp-down. You be […]
Biotechnology
Public-sector expert recommends government technological overhauls be done in smaller increments
Governments should not waver from pushing ahead with technological changes to improve the way they operate despite several examples—such as the Phoenix pay system for federal employees—turning into disasters, says a U.S. public-sector expert who was in Ottawa last week. The Phoenix pay system, turned on last year, was supposed to bring efficiencies to the […]
Is technological change a huge, dark cloud threatening to create a jobless society?
TORONTO—Is technological change—the digital world of robots, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things—a huge dark cloud threatening to create a jobless society? Or at least an uneven world where a small percentage of highly paid, high-skilled workers and a similar percentage of low-paid, low-skill servant workers co-exist, with no need for a middle-skills world? Or […]
Let’s drop the false distinctions between discovery versus applied science
Last week, for two days in Ottawa the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Peru’s National Council of Science and Technology and Technological Innovation, in partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre, hosted the 6th Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council. The heads of 56 research funding agencies from 50 […]
Canada must move fast to preserve Last Ice Area
This World Oceans Day, June 8, brings into focus Canada’s often-overlooked third ocean, the one that borders our country at the top of the world. The Arctic Ocean, along with much of the North itself, has been undergoing rapid change due to the warming of the planet. Ice-dependent species are watching their habitat disappear with […]
Government committed to supporting Canadian students, advanced research: Duncan
An acclaimed academic and former professor, Science Minister Kirsty Duncan has been tasked with the monumental task of recasting Canadian scientific policy. In the first full year of Liberal rule, her office oversaw the assembly of an expert panel led by former University of Toronto president Dave Naylor to study basic science in Canada. In its […]
Let’s put the ‘super’ in ‘supercluster’
These are exciting times for research and innovation in Canada. With a continued emphasis on innovation as a key to job creation, new areas of focus were announced in Budget 2017. With the additional input of the Naylor report and feedback from stakeholders working to improve research and innovation in our country, there are clear […]
Where will the future of jobs come from?
TORONTO—One of the greatest uncertainties facing our economy is the future of work. Where will the future jobs come from? What kind of jobs will they be? Will future job trends lead to greater or less inequality? How do we prepare today’s school children when we don’t even know what kind of jobs there will […]
Fundamental science, innovation don’t need to be seen in opposition
In current policy discussions, fundamental science and innovation are often placed in opposition to one another. Is it possible to resolve this apparent conflict, and to optimize the value of government research investment, by strengthening the continuum from basic research to innovation? The question arises, in part, from the excellent recommendations of the recently released […]
