Guest post by Robyn Dugas Mitacs Communications Coordinator Innovation affects us in personal, immediate ways, from medical breakthroughs that provide treatment, to smartphone apps that help us manage our schedules. At Mitacs we believe that supporting Canadian science, technology, and innovation not only sets the stage for long-term economic benefits, it also brings transformative solutions […]
science policy
Science journalism: the key to strong science literacy
Pascal Lapointe, Policy & Politics co-editor Last month, Québecers learned that money talks when it comes to manipulating science information, whether you pay a public relations firm a high enough price, or if you buy advertising. At the same time, however, we’re cutting funding to science journalism. Perhaps these two should be reversed? TransCanada […]
IPCC reports: between the street and the policy-makers
Pascal Lapointe and Karine Morin, Science Policy co-editors In September, the people’s climate march became New York City’s biggest political event in recent times. Why the need for a “people’s” march in the first place? Because of a feeling that something is wrong, not only in policy circles, but also in environmental circles – including […]
CSPC2014: Policy Makers Should Listen to Policy Experts and Scientists
Karine Morin, Science Policy co-editor Last week marked the sixth Canadian Science Policy Conference, and the fifth I’ve attended. Some topics seem to recur annually: entrepreneurship, the importance and challenges of research collaborations, and big data. However, each meeting also reveals something unexpected. This year’s unexpected aspect was a session focused on Canada’s defense […]
CSPC2014: Scientists are citizens, too
by Brian Owens General Science editor One of the common themes at last week’s Canadian Science Policy Conference in Halifax was the role of scientific evidence in policymaking, and specifically how scientists should go about providing it. I was disappointed to hear several of the politicians and policymakers – and no small number of scientists […]