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2019 Canadian Science Policy Conference (Nov.13 – 16, 2019 in Ottawa, Canada) celebrates its 10th year

Congratulations to the folks at the Canadian Science Policy Centre who’ve worked for 10 years to produce an annual, national Canadian Science Policy Conference! That’s a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and determination.

Here are highlights from the 2019 programme as noted in a July 10, 2019 CSPC announcement (received via email),

Theme: Science and Policy

Bringing the Social Sciences into New Policy Spaces: Solution-oriented case studies and dialogue

Organized by Natural Resources Canada

Evidence in Practice: How do decision-makers obtain and use information?
Organized by Evidence for Democracy

Fishing for Open Science Innovation–Should Canada join cOAlition/Plan S?
Organized by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council | Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council | Canadian Institutes of Health Research

How the Sciences of Human Behaviour Can Help us Put Knowledge at the Heart of Policymaking
Organized by European Commission – Joint Research Centre

International Research Collaboration in a Polarized World
Organized by Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation, University of Toronto

Mapping Dynamic Research Ecosystems: Tapping into new indicators, big data, and emerging technologies
Organized by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

Municipalities: Terrain for innovation
Organized by Fonds de recherche du Québec

National Inuit Strategy on Research (NISR) in Action: Developing an Inuit Nunangat research policy
Organized by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

Not a Palaver! How can interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international collaboration be successful?
Organized by UK Research and Innovation

Policy Lessons in the Age of Technological Disruption
Organized by Spindle Strategy Corp.

Precision Policy- Advances in big data analytics and government policy
Organized by Simon Fraser University

Risk, Uncertainty, Unknowns, and Nonsense – Engagement with the public on radiation, nuclear, and climate [sic]
Organized by Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy (CSIP), University of Saskatchewan

The Influence of Indigenous Knowledge on Policy and Practice
Organized by Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences and Genome British Columbia

The PROMISE OF SCIENCE and Its Implications for Science Policy: Perspectives of Canada’s STI community
Organized by VISTA Science & Technology Inc.

Towards a National Approach to Responsible AI
Organized by Queen’s University

Understanding and Addressing the Challenges for Collaborative Federal Science
Organized by Public Services and Procurement Canada
 
Theme: Science and Society

Artificial Intelligence – How interdisciplinary AI contributes to resilient and just societies
Organized by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Convergence Science and Tackling Grand Challenges
Organized by Privy Council Office

Creating SciComm: An interactive session connecting scientists, policy makers and the public
Organized by Pixels and Plans | Art the Science

Eating Right, Living Better: Building healthier food systems worldwide
Organized by International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

Fighting the Opioid Crisis by Reducing Stigma in the Media and Using Media to Reduce Stigma
Organized by Carleton University

Harnessing the Power of the Crowd: Innovative solutions to engaging communities in research
Organized by MEOPAR/Fathom Fund

Making Science Communication Happen – Moving from good intentions to getting the job done
Organized by NIVA

Scientists in the Public Space: When discussion turns into a media storm
Organized by Fonds de recherche du Québec

The Public Record: Enabling scientists to be honest brokers of evidence & information in an age of popular misinformation
Organized by  Alberta Environment and Parks – Office of the Chief Scientist
 
Theme: Science, Innovation, and Economic Development

A Winning Formula for Building Regional Innovation Capacity: Skills, research and collaboration
Organized by Colleges and Institutes Canada / National Alliance of Provincial Health Research Organizations

AI as an Enabler of Innovative Competitiveness
Organized by National Research Council Canada

Examining the Role of Data Trusts in Smart Cities Governance
Organized by Compute Ontario

Ontario-First in the Innovation Economy: Impacts of a $1B public-private-partnership on Canadian healthcare commercialization
Organized by FACIT

Open Science is Transforming the Research Landscape
Organized by The Neuro – Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital

Supports for Women Entrepreneurs: Discussion on existing knowledge, research and innovative methods to dismantle barriers
Organized by Ryerson University

Toward a Quantum Strategy for Canada
Organized by National Research Council Canada

Whose Facts actually Matter? How to truly embrace inclusiveness in science, innovation and policy
Organized by University of Ottawa, Institute for Science, Society and Policy  
Theme: Science and International Affairs

Artificial Intelligence: Building resilience against cyber threats 
Organized  by Simon Fraser University

Lines in the Sand: The struggle for national security in a world [sic]
Organized by David Johnston Research and Technology Park, University of Waterloo

Personhood Rights for Water Bodies: A fad or a path to sustainable development goals?
Organized by University of Waterloo

Research Without Borders: Funding agency case studies on international collaboration
Organized by UK Research and Innovation

Science Diplomacy in a Changing Arctic
Organized by Embassy of Switzerland
Theme: Science and the Next Generation

Empowering Youth Through Self-led and Experiential Learning

Organized by Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation

SING’ing Indigenous Technoscience: An encounter with the summer internship for Indigenous peoples in Genomics Canada
Organized by University of Alberta

The Role of the Next Generation in Science Diplomacy 
Organized by Fonds de recherche du Québec

What Future for Young Science Policy Practitioners?
Organized by American Association for the Advancement of Science

What Would an Inclusive Innovation Agenda for a New Generation of Indigenous Children in Canada Look Like?
Organized by Ulnooweg – Digital Mikmaq
 
Short Talks 

Global Governance and Emerging ‘High-Risk’ Technologies

Journal of Science Policy & Governance: Engaging students & early career researchers in S&T policy

Mapping Diversity in Post-Disaster Emergency Assistance

Mobilizing Change from Within: A case study on gender equity and internal research funding

Translating Research to Impact Policy – Our journey in concussion policy in canada [sic]

Why Pro-LGBT Policies Can Turn Out to be Innovation Policies? Evidence-based arguments to support diversity in Canada

Wikipedia Editing & Edit-A-Thons: A form of science advocacy  
View CSPC 2019 Program

Comments

It looks like a good programme. I’m particularly excited about the artificial intelligence (AI) sessions and heartened to see more participation from the indigenous community as it continues to organize. For so long, the thought of indigenous science was rejected so it’s good to see these small steps toward recognition and respect.

Also, there are a couple of countries and regions represented at this conference that suggest Canadian policymakers (or policymakers in training) might be opening the door to welcome more than just our US, UK, and European neighbours into the discussion. There’s someone from Chile and someone from the Caribbean (specifically, Barbados) in addition to the sprinkling of Americans, Brits, and Europeans at this year’s conference.

One thing I wasn’t expecting to see was representation by the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Of course, the member (Susheel Gupta) will be on the panel discussing national security. Hopefully this participation is part of a new direction for the RCMP’s public outreach. They definitely need some positive news given the current state of their reputation in Canada.

What’s missing?

The most puzzling thing about this programme is CRISPR and germline editing. Not a single session touches on the subject. Given that the news about the CRISPR twins broke in November 2018 (see my November 28, 2018 posting) and the international furor that followed, I’d expect we’d be discussing it.

Especially in light of the interest in changing the rules in Canada on germline editing. Currently there’s a ban on it and as I noted in my April 26, 2019 posting, there seems to be a campaign to change to lift or alter that ban..

It seems like a glaring omission but perhaps no one made the suggestion and no one organizing committee was able to assemble a panel.

Plus this year too, there’s no mention of the Phoenix Pay System failure. Sure, there’s talk about big data (a panel on Precision Policy) and the previously noted AI sessions but where’s the talk about the failures, specifically, Phoenix, a digital/technology failure.

The Canadian government’s new pay system was an astonishing debacle from when it was first implemented in early 2016 and the saga continues. In the three years since I don’t recall a single session at a Canadian Science Policy Conference where failure of major digital projects and the implications have been discussed. Meanwhile, the Canadian government continues on its merry drive towards more data collection and implementation of AI and other technologies. Shouldn’t we be considering the social and policy implications of this drive and what happens when there’s a failure? I gather the answer is no.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Phoenix failure, it affected every pay system in the Canadian federal government. In a bid to cut costs by centralizing, updating, and further digitizing the system, Phoenix was implemented despite warnings that it wasn’t ready. As I understand it, government employees (273,571 in 2018), to this day, still don’t know if they will get a pay cheque or if they will get the right amount in their pay cheque in any given month.

Finally

Bravo! There are lots of good things happening with the Canadian Science Policy Conferences.

Register here and take advantage of the early bird discount (until August 31,2019).