29th November 2013 Ottawa, Canada

Promoting UK development science in Canada

Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Andrée Carter, Director of the UK Collaboration for Development Science (UKCDS) to Canada. She came at our invitation, to participate in a panel entitled: The world in 2020: Three questions for internationalised science, at the Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC), held in Toronto.  She preceded her visit with a  short (but intense) visit to Ottawa, where we were able to meet with several Canadian players in the development science scene. Here she’s joined us for a guest blog, recounting the highlights of her visit:

I visited Canada last week for the first time, at the invitation of the UK’s Science and Innovation Network (SIN).  I participated in the Canadian Science Policy Conference in a session on the world in 2020 and implications for international research collaboration, organised by John Preece from the British Consulate-General in Toronto. I also took the opportunity to meet research funders and members of the science community in a series of back to back meetings in Ottawa, brilliantly coordinated by Nicole Arbour, the head of the network in Canada.

First impressions of Canada

On arrival:

1. Who on earth is Tim Horton? This challenged all my preconceptions of coffee shop evolution Starbucks, Costa, Nero – is it a Darwinian offshoot that has only developed in North America?

2. Is there a scientific reason why the resting water level in Canadian toilets appears to be higher than in British ones? One feels perilously close. Subsequent research tells me its all in the design of the S bend.

3. What a brilliant idea to put all retail shops in Toronto underground or out of sight in other buildings – all one is confronted with is food or drink outlets at street level. I hate shopping so was quite happy not to be tempted!

4. I went up the CN Tower, the tallest building in the Western world – I marvelled at the engineering but reeled at the price but just had to tick the box!

Meetings

I discovered that UK science is held in high esteem, as are our science-policy interfaces and systems.  I heard several sorry tales of the tension between scientists funded by the Federal government.  To be frank, I was quite shocked that senior scientists are forbidden to speak freely to the public and realise that the freedom we have in the UK should be highly valued.

Regardless of the tensions, I had some really productive discussions with funders and identified a number of opportunities for either mutual learning or potential collaboration.  There is already a great deal of cooperation between Canada and the UK, for example, the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council used the UK Government Office for Science Foresight methodology for a two year study to explore the future of  ‘Imagining Canada’s Future‘.

The learning from this project will be shared with Department  for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) who are currently looking at the future of UK science and also with my own organisation, UKCDS, which has a project to develop some thinking about the future of UK science for international development

The focus of my contribution to ‘ The world in 2020’ was the role that science, technology and innovation will make to help deliver and evaluate the post 2015 development goals which, if agreed in 2015 at the UN General Assembly, will be 1/3 of the way through their term. The proposed goals will apply to all countries and unlike the Millennium Development Goals have a much stronger focus on sustainability, inequality and governance.  A mantra already being often quoted is ‘leave no-one behind’.

There is an appetite from a number of Canadian institutions and universities to understand how they can partner with UK organisations on science for development and if anyone wants to explore opportunities further or requires introductions, the SIN team or I (A.carter@ukcds.org.uk) will be happy to help.

On departure:

I bought maple syrup biscuits and maple syrup!

About Nicole Arbour

Based in the National Capital, I cover the federal S&T sector, national S&T organisations, as well as local industry and academic partners. I manage the UK’s Science & Innovation Network…

Based in the National Capital, I cover the federal S&T sector, national S&T organisations, as well as local industry and academic partners. I manage the UK’s Science & Innovation Network in Canada, and our contribution towards the wider Canada-UK relationship. This year my focus will be working towards the delivery of the Canada-UK Joint Declaration and the Canada-UK Joint Innovation Statement. In my spare time I like to cook and spend quality time with my family. Find me on Twitter @narbour