A Visit to the University of Ottawa

I’m sure you’re asking yourself what I’m doing as a UK Science and Innovation Officer in Canada? Well, a big part of what I do is networking and network development. I talk to researchers, those involved in research administration and policy development, and remind them of all the fabulous research that is done in the UK. After all, with just 1% of the world’s population the UK receives over 12% of all citations to published papers and has more Nobel prizes per capita (1.88 per million), than that the US (1.04) or Canada (0.53) (1). But we all know that science is an international affair, not limited to one country, and there are many opportunities for collaborative research between excellent researchers both in Canada and in the UK. By strengthening research ties between the two countries, we can all stretch our resources (important in these tough economic times) in addition to moving the research forward faster.

Yesterday I went out to the University of Ottawa (UofO), to meet with the VP Research Dr. Mona Nemer, and Associate VP Research Dr. Ruby Heap. Both women are well respected researchers in their fields, as well as holding additional University administrative roles. It was an exciting and dynamic meeting, held bilingually (both in French and in English…not on purpose, it just worked out that way 😛 ). The UKRC would have been proud.

We discussed many things, including the increasing internationalisation of Universities and the importance of having research ties with other countries, not only through research specific collaborations, but through the fact that more and more students are choosing to study abroad, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. We all want to attract/train the best and brightest, to build solid knowledge based economies.

We also discussed some of the UofO’s strengths: photonics (within the Physics department – of particular note, the addition of Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC)  holder Robert W. Boyd whose chair is in Quantum Nonlinear Optics), neuroscience (with the new interdisciplinary Brain and Mind Research Institute), stem cell research (the University houses 2 network centers of excellence (NCE) the Stroke Network  & the Stem Cell Network), linguistics, chemistry (with particular strengths in materials chemistry and development of pharmacological agents using green processes), and IT (within the Faculty of Engineering). We hypothesized about areas where we could see immediate collaboration opportunities (potentially infectious diseases), and discussed additional ways in which Canada and the UK can work together – through collaboration with the University of Ottawa.

I left the meeting with a feeling of excitement (with visions of scientists bouncing in your heads), thinking of all the possible areas of collaboration between the UK and the UofO. I was also happy to have met these two fascinating women, leaders within the academic environment – helping to prepare future generations of researchers. I look forward to opportunities to work with them in the future!

Do you work with, or want to work with the University of Ottawa? Other Canadian research institutions/organizations/groups of particular interest? Let me know!