In about another month or so, the group that organized the *Canadian Science Policy Conference last year will be holding it’s 2nd annual conference in Montréal, Québec from Oct. 20-22, 2010. My June 7, 2010 posting featured their preliminary programme and five listed themes. I’ll repeat the themes here,
* Increasing the Productivity of Canada’s Economy using Science and Technology
* Global Perspectives on Science and Technology
* Creating and Retaining Scientific Talent in Canada
* A Glance at Bioscience in Canada
* Major Issues in Canadian Science Policy
They have since attracted two keynote speakers:
- Dr. Marc Garneau (Former Astronaut turned Federal MP of Westmount Ville-Marie).
- Dr. Nina V. Fedorov (Willaman Professor of the Life Sciences and Evan Pugh Professor, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Penn State University, Distinguished Visiting Professor, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and Member, External Faculty, The Santa Fe Institute).
I have looked at the agenda and must admit to a little disappointment as it all seems a bit pedestrian. Given the themes, I suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised but it does seem a waste when a little imagination and verve could have produced something thoughtprovoking. For example, instead of this theme:
Creating and Retaining Scientific Talent in Canada
We could have this one:
How many scientists do we need in Canada and what should they be doing?
I’m also wondering why there are no sessions about citizen science or public engagement or the lack of industrial science or the muzzling of government scientists at Environment Canada, Health Canada, and Natural Resources Canada?
Still, there are a few unexpected sessions such as this one: Educating Socially Engaged Scientists and Engineers. In any event, I wish the organizers and attendees a very fruitful science policy conference.
* There is appears to be another group that organizes Canadian science policy conferences although their target market appears to be scientists in the civil service (and I believe they hold their conference every two years). I posted about their 2010 conference here and here.