Making Waves is a series of short thought pieces, written by CSIP scholars and researchers, on issues that are driving the conversation within science and innovation policy.
In this article of Making Waves, authors Peter Phillips and Baljiit Singh argue that it's time to invite the higher education communities to join the dialogue and debate about the innovation policy that is needed to secure Canada's future.
In this Making Waves post, researchers Rim Lassoued and Stuart Smyth report on the opinions of prairie seed growers regarding seed regulation.
By only counting patents, licensing revenues and commercial startups as our economic impact, we almost completely discount the impact of universities through the training of our graduates.
We have a problem with how we situate science in our policy system. Increasingly we hear politicians, policy makers, policy entrepreneurs and citizens invoking science as the rationale or justification for specific policy action.
In early March, the president of the United States signed an executive order instructing different agencies to study the development of a framework to regulate digital assets, i.e., all types of digitally issued financial assets and instruments used for payments and investments (Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets, 2022). The White House stated that the project also asks for a detailed plan for the possible launch of a digital version of the dollar, a so-called “Central Bank Digital Currency” (CBDC).
In this new edition to Making Waves, Dr. Jeremy Rayner reviews the latest report on the future of small modular reactors issued by four provincial governments.
The very best human communication is in the form of stories. This might be in the form of the latest crime series or the latest hard core non-fiction book on the past or the present. Stories are powerful and at their best tap into our brains in ways that motive us to change or think something new.
Non-completion is one issue about postsecondary education (PSE) that attracts much attention from the non-educational community. Yet, it seems to be avoided or even hidden for PSE institutions and governments, probably because it signals something is going very wrong with the whole system.
Canada has made a commitment to move to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This raises two fundamental questions: can the available technologies help us meet our goal or do we need new technologies that have yet to be proven?
Following the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in August, the scale and depth of the challenge facing the future of the world’s climate was clearly shown.
In Spring 2021, Health Canada released proposed new guidance for the Novel Food Regulations, specifically focused on plant breeding, and conducted an open consultation seeking feedback from both industry stakeholders and general Canadian public. This move reflects the government’s intent to establish a predictable commercialization pathway in preparation for new products that are developed using new plant breeding techniques, more specifically, “gene editing” (GEd) techniques.
Health remains an important consideration as we make choices about how we collectively and individually live our lives in a post-pandemic world. One risk we face in the post-pandemic period is that every issue will be examined through the filter of public health. The concern is that not everything is a public health issue or requires the same level of intensity that the COVID-19 epidemic warranted.
