Tag Archives: Canadian Forum on Innovation and Societal Impact (CFSI)

Canadian Forum on Innovation and Societal Impact launches at McMaster University on Oct. 12th and 13th 2022

The Canadian Science Policy Centre’s September 22, 2022 announcement (received via email) includes this nugget of information,

The Canadian Forum on Innovation and Societal Impact [CFSI] will launch in the Fall 2022 with a first series of catalyst roundtables, deliberative dialogues and concertation workshops at McMaster University on October 12th and 13th,  2022. A joint-venture of the Canadian Science Policy Centre and The/La Collaborative, CFISI will convene social research and innovation stakeholders across sectors with the purpose of exploring alignment on policies and practices that leverage impact-first training and knowledge mobilisation in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts (SSHA) to foster innovation and build capacity in the social and municipal sectors. For more information, please click here.

I went to the CFSI webpage on the McMaster University website and found this,

The objective of the inaugural meeting is to understand how universities can better utilize and mobilize social and human knowledge into their communities, in particular into social sector organizations (non-profit, charities, funders) and municipal governments. What are the knowledge gaps? What are the needs and priorities in social sector organizations and the social innovation ecosystem? Which approaches to cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaborations can help address the biggest social and policy challenges?

The event is by invitation only [emphasis mine], and will proceed under the Chatham House rules. Sessions will leverage strategic visioning and deliberative dialogue to create stakeholder alignment and deliver a first series of action plans.

Participants will bring individual and organisational perspectives on a range issues including:

The nature and structure of innovation in the social sector.

Campus-community relationship and the challenges of knowledge mobilisation in social innovation ecosystem

The role of municipal governments in fostering innovation in the social space

Needs around policy innovation and talent in the social and municipal sector.

Contribution of Indigenous knowledge to social sector, local policy making

Who are the Participants?

Social sector organisation leaders

Social Innovation stakeholders

Research and higher education policy stakeholders

Decision- and policy-makers from municipal governments

Social and human sciences researchers

Concertation and Action Plan

The event is intended as a concertation and consultation. Sense-making workshops and consultative roundtables will aim at building consensus around key concepts and best-practices. Catalysts panels and reporting sessions will aim to establish a shared vision for an action plan around cross-sectoral strategies for innovation in the social impact ecosystem.

The genuinely cross-sectoral setting will provide an opportunity to learn from a variety of perspectives in an effort to reduce barriers to knowledge-driven collaboration and partnerships and increase the social capital of research institutions to streamline impact.

This is where it got interesting,

SUBMIT A LETTER OF INTENT TO REQUEST PARTICIPATION

The event is by invitation only and will proceed under the Chatham House rules. Those with a demonstrated interest in the theme of the Forum can submit a letter of intent to request participation in the meeting. The number of places is limited.

Please fill out the participation request FORM and return it to:

forum22@mcmaster.ca

The deadline for submitting the form is September 15th [2022; emphases mine].
Applicants will be notified shortly thereafter.

It’s a bit late but perhaps there’s a little space left for more participants?

I’m not able to confirm whether this event is in person (in Hamilton, Ontario), online, or hybrid (in person and online).