I was very happy to see that a new edition of ‘The State of Science and Technology in Canada‘ or similarly named report from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA). Here’s more about that report and others form the CCA’s May 2025 issue of The Advance (received via email),

Building Canada’s “report card” for science, technology, and innovation

In September 2006, the CCA published The State of Science and Technology in Canada—an expert assessment of the scientific disciplines and technological applications in which Canada excels. Commissioned by Industry Canada [or Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada or ISED], the report provided a much-needed foundation for benchmarking Canada’s strengths in science and technology; previously, the report noted, there was “almost no published literature focused specifically on strengths of the Canadian science and technology system overall, and particularly not at a reasonably fine level of detail.” The CCA has built upon its inaugural study ever since, steadily reassessing Canada’s science and technology strengths as well as the relationships between research, development, and innovation.

With our next assessment of Canada’s science, technology, and innovation ecosystem underway, with support from ISED’s Strategic Science Fund, we are revisiting our flagship assessments and their impacts on our collective understanding of science, technology, and innovation.

Read Science, Technology, and Innovation in Canada: Tracking Our Evolution.

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I found this in ‘Tracking Our Evolution‘,

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Two decades of expertise

For the inaugural edition of The State of Science and Technology in Canada, the CCA recruited a ten-person expert panel chaired by Elizabeth Dowdeswell, O.C. In order to create a well-rounded picture of Canadian innovation, the panel analyzed patents grants and citations as well as peer-reviewed journal publications; conducted an extensive literature review; and surveyed more than 1,500 experts on the strength and trajectory of Canada’s overall science and technology efforts and areas of note. The resulting report provided a broad sweep of expertise as well as granular information.

Since then, the CCA has published three additional assessments of Canada’s science, technology, and innovation performance, all at the request of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. They include a second volume of The State of Science and Technology in Canada (2012); The State of Industrial Research and Development in Canada (2013); and Competing in a Global Innovation Economy (2018). This year, the CCA will publish a fifth installment focused on the current state of science, technology, and innovation.

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Over the years, the CCA’s science and technology assessments have documented Canada’s reputation for world-leading infrastructure, high levels of education attainment, substantial research output and impact. They have also detailed declining R&D investment and intensity, and the accelerating outflow of Canada-born patents. They have identified sectors of R&D strength, from computer systems design to scientific research and development, and research-publication strengths in fields such as clinical medicine, public health, and the performing arts. Each assessment provides a multi-part assessment of Canada’s progress to-date, and an actionable platform for improving national prosperity, competitiveness, and well-being.

The CCA’s assessments have evolved in tandem with Canada’s science and technology landscape, expanding and refining the metrics on which we draw to detail its strengths and challenges. Our efforts include a Subcommittee on Science and Technology Research Methods, to provide recommendations for improving methodologies and closing data gaps. From research output to patents, from public- and private-sector investment to fields of global renown, each new assessment provides advanced methodologies for understanding Canadian innovation as it unfolds.

You can find out more the current iteration of The State of Science, Technology, and Innovation in Canada here including a listing with biographies of the report’s expert panel.

There’s more in the CCA’s May 2025 issue of The Advance,

Members of the Expert Panel on Balancing Research Security and Open Science for Dual-Use Research of Concern gathered in Ottawa in early May for a panel meeting, ahead of the project’s planned Fall 2025 release.

Learn more about the project and panel.

Readings and Events

• CIFAR is now accepting applications for its Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School, to be held in Montebello, Quebec. CIFAR describes the school as “a unique, three-day event where tomorrow’s neuroscience leaders work closely with world-class researchers.” The deadline for applications is June 23 [2025].
• For the Conversation, a team of researchers examines Canada’s “fragmented immunization data” and a drop in vaccine confidence, then asks if the country is prepared for a new pandemic. “In 2024, 17 per cent of Canadian parents were ‘really against’ vaccinating their children, up from four per cent in 2019,” write the researchers, drawing on work by the CCA’s Expert Panel on the Socioeconomic Impacts of Science and Health Misinformation. (Noni MacDonald, a co-author, served as a member of the CCA panel.)
• TamIA, the first piece of the Pan-Canadian AI Compute Environment (PAICE), launched at Université Laval. TamIA is a computing cluster that will work in tandem with infrastructure at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto. Frédéric Chanay-Savoyen, Vice President of AI Solutions and Technology at Mila, a PAICE partner, says TamIA’s increased computing capacity “makes it possible to develop an environment that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration on a national scale and that will allow Quebec and Canada to maintain its position as a leader in the field of cutting-edge AI research.”
• The Open Notebook, a nonprofit that supports science journalists, recently asked a group of reporters how they navigate research reports, especially those that are hundreds (or thousands) of pages long. Their responses hold insights for all members of the science media.
• Dr. Henry Friesen, best known for his discovery of prolactin and his trailblazing research on human growth hormones, died on April 30 at 90 years old. Friesen, a former member of the CCA’s Board of Governors, helped lead the development of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, among many other honours. 

My October 17, 2024 posting “AI and Canadian science diplomacy & more stories from the October 2024 Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) newsletter” provides some insight, which is still salient, about artificial intelligence scene (policy, diplomacy, etc.) in Canada..

There you have it.