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The no-longer-new president of the National Research Council has just been told by the federal budget to “re-imagine” his agency, but it turns out he’s been doing this for a year and a half.
Iain Stewart was hired in 2016 — NRC’s centennial — and told to make changes, after the sudden departure of his predecessor, John McDougall.
“Ministers asked me to come back in the spring (of 2017) with ideas on how to re-imagine the NRC,” he said Thursday in a long interview about the budget and NRC’s future.
The budget, released last week, adds $108 million a year to build “research strengths” and links with universities, and $150 million a year for work that helps Canadian industry.
It also signals a return to focusing on “basic” research for the NRC — the questions that ask how our universe works without looking for industrial applications.
Stewart began his new job by asking NRC’s 3,700 employees for their opinions, and in months of round table discussions he got answers from 3,000 of them about what worked and what didn’t.
“And then we said: OK, so what would you like to do about it?” More round tables followed.
Some of the resulting changes required new funding, which is where the budget comes in. Other matters were simpler, but still important.
“So this is the National Research Council, and we had a vision statement that didn’t have excellence in research,” he said. “One of the things they (staff) would like to change was they wanted to put the emphasis back on research excellence in the organization” because “we ought to aspire to doing excellent research and it is important to our long-term value to the public sector.”
The new vision statement comes out next week. It is a safe bet that it will mention excellence.
Another change is to recruit fresh young minds. Traditionally, there has been money to hire post-doctoral researchers (people who have just received a PhD), but the NRC is putting a twist on it.
“We had the (senior) researchers submit proposals on what they would like the post-doc to do with them. They had to write a pitch, in a way, like: Why is this going to be scientifically beneficial?” It became a competition, whittling down 109 proposals to 20 and finally to 12. More will follow.
“We are trying to create a post-doc program that will bring the brightest young minds to the most pernicious problems at NRC,” he said.
Another change: Staff scientists at NRC often used to hold positions as adjunct professors at universities, but Stewart said “our pursuit of business revenue” in recent years has eroded this.
“Some people continued to be adjunct professors but the management of NRC was not encouraging people to be adjunct professors,” he said.
Consider it encouraged again. “It connects us in very organic ways into the university community. It results in shared students. It creates the circulation of brains that I think is essential to the research community. And it exposes us to a different context, and in turn exposes the university to us.”
Stewart is the former assistant vice-president of research at Dalhousie University, but has mostly held a series of federal public service jobs.
He also feels the NRC “drifted away” from regional research centres, and his plan to re-connect comes with $30 million in fresh budget money.
In many cases, it will mean “putting small teams on university campuses.” This would mean groups of three to six NRC researchers, plus technical support, “to co-locate with a university group that is expert in the same area.”
Details aren’t announced yet, but he offers the example of a group from Boucherville who may move to a university setting somewhere in downtown Toronto.
“We’re on the cusp of about half a dozen over the next four months.”
This “creates a really interesting shared dynamic. It is like connective tissue back to the main (NRC) lab … Researchers are going back and forth. Students are going back and forth, and people who otherwise would not talk” are connecting, he said.
“The NRC and the universities should be bringing the peanut butter and the chocolate to make the Reese’s peanut butter cup.”
Stewart is publicly saying that yes, basic research that doesn’t have an immediate commercial use is welcome again at NRC. There was discontent during the Conservative years among many staff who felt they were only valued if they worked on short-term industrial problems, and are hoping that the promised changes now are real.
A bigger budget also gives NRC the luxury of focusing again on basic physics, chemistry and the rest without having to abandon its other mandate of supporting industry.
There is fresh funding for IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program, though no one ever uses the full name) — $150 million a year in new, ongoing funding.
As well, the maximum available per business has jumped from $1 million to $10 million. IRAP has been around for seven decades.
Stewart noted the budget also takes $59.6 million that had to be extended one year at a time since 2000, and makes it permanent funding which is more secure in the long term.
There is also an “ideation fund” of $6 million a year, and $12 million to allow NRC to reduce the prices it charges businesses for IRAP help.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
Iain Stewart was hired in 2016 — NRC’s centennial — and told to make changes, after the sudden departure of his predecessor, John McDougall.
“Ministers asked me to come back in the spring (of 2017) with ideas on how to re-imagine the NRC,” he said Thursday in a long interview about the budget and NRC’s future.
The budget, released last week, adds $108 million a year to build “research strengths” and links with universities, and $150 million a year for work that helps Canadian industry.
It also signals a return to focusing on “basic” research for the NRC — the questions that ask how our universe works without looking for industrial applications.
Stewart began his new job by asking NRC’s 3,700 employees for their opinions, and in months of round table discussions he got answers from 3,000 of them about what worked and what didn’t.
“And then we said: OK, so what would you like to do about it?” More round tables followed.
Some of the resulting changes required new funding, which is where the budget comes in. Other matters were simpler, but still important.
“So this is the National Research Council, and we had a vision statement that didn’t have excellence in research,” he said. “One of the things they (staff) would like to change was they wanted to put the emphasis back on research excellence in the organization” because “we ought to aspire to doing excellent research and it is important to our long-term value to the public sector.”
The new vision statement comes out next week. It is a safe bet that it will mention excellence.
Another change is to recruit fresh young minds. Traditionally, there has been money to hire post-doctoral researchers (people who have just received a PhD), but the NRC is putting a twist on it.
“We had the (senior) researchers submit proposals on what they would like the post-doc to do with them. They had to write a pitch, in a way, like: Why is this going to be scientifically beneficial?” It became a competition, whittling down 109 proposals to 20 and finally to 12. More will follow.
“We are trying to create a post-doc program that will bring the brightest young minds to the most pernicious problems at NRC,” he said.
Another change: Staff scientists at NRC often used to hold positions as adjunct professors at universities, but Stewart said “our pursuit of business revenue” in recent years has eroded this.
“Some people continued to be adjunct professors but the management of NRC was not encouraging people to be adjunct professors,” he said.
Consider it encouraged again. “It connects us in very organic ways into the university community. It results in shared students. It creates the circulation of brains that I think is essential to the research community. And it exposes us to a different context, and in turn exposes the university to us.”
Stewart is the former assistant vice-president of research at Dalhousie University, but has mostly held a series of federal public service jobs.
He also feels the NRC “drifted away” from regional research centres, and his plan to re-connect comes with $30 million in fresh budget money.
In many cases, it will mean “putting small teams on university campuses.” This would mean groups of three to six NRC researchers, plus technical support, “to co-locate with a university group that is expert in the same area.”
Details aren’t announced yet, but he offers the example of a group from Boucherville who may move to a university setting somewhere in downtown Toronto.
“We’re on the cusp of about half a dozen over the next four months.”
This “creates a really interesting shared dynamic. It is like connective tissue back to the main (NRC) lab … Researchers are going back and forth. Students are going back and forth, and people who otherwise would not talk” are connecting, he said.
“The NRC and the universities should be bringing the peanut butter and the chocolate to make the Reese’s peanut butter cup.”
Stewart is publicly saying that yes, basic research that doesn’t have an immediate commercial use is welcome again at NRC. There was discontent during the Conservative years among many staff who felt they were only valued if they worked on short-term industrial problems, and are hoping that the promised changes now are real.
A bigger budget also gives NRC the luxury of focusing again on basic physics, chemistry and the rest without having to abandon its other mandate of supporting industry.
There is fresh funding for IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program, though no one ever uses the full name) — $150 million a year in new, ongoing funding.
As well, the maximum available per business has jumped from $1 million to $10 million. IRAP has been around for seven decades.
Stewart noted the budget also takes $59.6 million that had to be extended one year at a time since 2000, and makes it permanent funding which is more secure in the long term.
There is also an “ideation fund” of $6 million a year, and $12 million to allow NRC to reduce the prices it charges businesses for IRAP help.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
